Terrigenous dissolved organic matter persists in the energy-limited deep groundwaters of the Fennoscandian Shield.

The deep terrestrial biosphere encompasses the life below the photosynthesis-fueled surface that perseveres in typically nutrient and energy depleted anoxic groundwaters. The composition and cycling of this vast dissolved organic matter (DOM) reservoir relevant to the global carbon cycle remains to be deciphered. Here we show that recent Baltic Sea-influenced to ancient pre-Holocene saline Fennoscandian Shield deep bedrock fracture waters carried DOM with a strong terrigenous signature and varying contributions from abiotic and biotic processes. Removal of easily degraded carbon at the surface-to-groundwater transition and corresponding microbial community assembly processes likely resulted in the highly similar DOM signatures across the notably different water types that selected for a core microbiome. In combination with the aliphatic character, depleted δ13C signatures in DOM indicated recent microbial production in the oldest, saline groundwater. Our study revealed the persistence of terrestrially-sourced carbon in severely energy limited deep continental groundwaters supporting deep microbial life.

Effect of tunnel excavation on source and mixing of groundwater in a coastal granitoidic fracture network.

The aim of this study was to assess how the excavation of the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory tunnel has impacted on sources and mixing of groundwater in fractured crystalline (granitoidic) bedrock. The tunnel is 3600 m long and extends to a depth of 460 m at a coastal site in Boreal Europe. The study builds on a unique data set consisting of 1117 observations on chloride and δ(18)O of groundwater collected from a total of 356 packed-off fractures between 1987 and 2011. On the basis of the values of these two variables in selected source waters, a classification system was developed to relate the groundwater observations to source and postinfiltration mixing phenomena. The results show that the groundwater has multiple sources and a complex history of transport and mixing, and is composed of at least glacial water, marine water, recent meteoric water, and an old saline water. The tunnel excavation has had a large impact on flow, sources, and mixing of the groundwater. Important phenomena include upflow of deep-lying saline water, extensive intrusion of current Baltic Sea water, and substantial temporal variability of chloride and δ(18)O in many fractures.

In situ tracer tests to determine retention properties of a block scale fracture network in granitic rock at the Aspö Hard Rock Laboratory, Sweden.

Experiments were conducted at the Aspö Hard Rock Laboratory in order to improve the understanding of radionuclide retention properties of fractured crystalline bedrock in the 10-100 m scale (TRUE Block Scale Project, jointly funded by ANDRA, ENRESA, Nirex, JNC, Posiva and SKB). A series of tracer experiments were performed using sorbing tracers in three different flow paths. The different flow paths had Euclidian lengths of 14, 17 and 33 m, respectively, and one to three water conducting structures. Four tests were performed using different cocktails made up of radioactive sorbing tracers (22,24Na+, 42K+, 47Ca2+, 85Sr2+, 83,86Rb+, 131,133Ba2+ and 134,137Cs+). For each tracer injection, the breakthrough of sorbing tracers was compared to the breakthrough of a conservative tracer, 82Br-, 131I-, HTO and 186ReO4-, respectively. In the two longer flow paths, no breakthrough of 83Rb+ and 137Cs+ was observed after 8 months of pumping. Selected tracer tests were subject to basic modelling in which a one-dimensional (1D) advection-dispersion model, including surface sorption, and an unlimited matrix diffusion were used for the interpretation of the results. The results of the modelling indicated that there is a slightly higher mass transfer into a highly porous material in the block-scale experiment compared with in situ experiments performed over shorter distances and significantly higher than what would have been expected from laboratory data obtained from studies of the interactions in nonaltered intact rock.