Autochthonic recalcitrant organic carbon is the most stable component in karst aquatic systems. Still, the processes of its generation and transformation remain unclear, which hinders the study of the mechanisms and quantitative calculations of carbon sinks in karst aquatic systems. This study collected water samples from the Li River, a typical surface karst river in Southwest China. Through in situ microbial cultivation and the chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) spectrum, changes in organic carbon components and their contents during the transformation of autochthonic dissolved organic carbon (Auto-DOC) to autochthonic dissolved recalcitrant organic carbon (Auto-RDOC) were analyzed to investigate the inert transformation processes of endogenous organic carbon. This study found that microbial carbon pumps (MCPs) promote the tyrosine-like component condensed into microbial-derived fulvic and humic components via heterotrophic bacteria metabolism, forming Auto-RDOC. During the dry season, the high level of Auto-DOC provides abundant organic substrates for heterotrophic bacteria, resulting in significantly higher Auto-RDOC production compared to the rainy season. This study provides fundamental information on the formation mechanisms of Auto-DOC in karst aquatic systems, which contributes to the assessment of carbon sinks in karst aquatic systems.
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Li et al. (2024) studied this question.
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