Divergent Controls on Stream Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Across a Land-Use Gradient

Herreid, A.; Wymore, Adam S.; Varner, R. K.; Potter, Jody D.; McDowell, W. H.

doi:10.1007/s10021-020-00584-7

Cited by 30 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Individual samples from each stream exhibited relatively high concentrations of dissolved CH 4 . The median and maximum of dissolved CH 4 concentrations were similar to those found in a yearlong survey of gas concentrations in streams in New Hampshire (0.63 and 13.5 µmol CH 4 L −1 ; Herreid et al, 2020). Our dataset precludes analysis of what causes these high concentrations, but we have no reason to discard them from our analysis as they fall within ranges observed in streams and rivers locally and globally (Stanley et al, 2016).…”

Section: Diffusive Emissions Dominate Ch 4 Efflux Budgetsupporting

confidence: 74%

Dominance of Diffusive Methane Emissions From Lowland Headwater Streams Promotes Oxidation and Isotopic Enrichment

Robison

Wollheim

Perryman

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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Inland waters are the largest natural source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere, yet the contribution from small streams to this flux is not clearly defined. To fully understand CH4 emissions from streams and rivers, we must consider the relative importance of CH4 emission pathways, the prominence of microbially-mediated production and oxidation of CH4, and the isotopic signature of emitted CH4. Here, we construct a complete CH4 emission budgets for four lowland headwater streams by quantifying diffusive CH4 emissions and comparing them to previously published rates of ebullitive emissions. We also examine the isotopic composition of CH4 along with the sediment microbial community to investigate production and oxidation across the streams. We find that all four streams are supersaturated with respect to CH4 with diffusive emissions accounting for approximately 78–100% of total CH4 emissions. Isotopic and microbial data suggest CH4 oxidation is prevalent across the streams, depleting approximately half of the dissolved CH4 pool before emission. We propose a conceptual model of CH4 production, oxidation, and emission from small streams, where the dominance of diffusive emissions is greater compared to other aquatic ecosystems, and the impact of CH4 oxidation is observable in the emitted isotopic values. As a result, we suggest the CH4 emitted from small streams is isotopically heavy compared to lentic ecosystems. Our results further demonstrate streams are important components of the global CH4 cycle yet may be characterized by a unique pattern of cycling and emission that differentiate them from other aquatic ecosystems.

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Section: Diffusive Emissions Dominate Ch 4 Efflux Budgetsupporting

confidence: 74%

Dominance of Diffusive Methane Emissions From Lowland Headwater Streams Promotes Oxidation and Isotopic Enrichment

Robison

Wollheim

Perryman

et al. 2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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“…3f). Such a negative relation is unique compared to patterns previously reported, as N 2 O content in rivers is in general positively related to DIN [56][57][58] .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 43%

Andean headwater and piedmont streams are hot spots of carbon dioxide and methane emissions in the Amazon basin

Chiriboga

Borges

2023

Commun Earth Environ

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Rivers substantially contribute to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet emissions from headwater streams are poorly constrained. Here, we report dissolved concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) in Andean headwater and piedmont streams in the Napo River basin in Ecuador, part of the Amazon River catchment. Concentrations increased exponentially with elevation decrease between 3990 and 175 m above sea level. Concentration changes scaled with catchment slope, and were attributed to variations in gas transfer velocity, forest cover, inundation extent, and water temperature. We estimate river emissions across the whole Amazon basin using existing data for the lowland Central Amazon. We find that Andean mountainous headwater and piedmont streams are hotspots of CO2 and CH4 emission, with respective areal fluxes being 1.7 and 4.5 higher in headwater streams, and 1.2 and 6.6 higher in piedmont streams than in lowland streams. Together, Andean mountainous headwater and piedmont streams and rivers represented 35% CO2 and 72% CH4 of basin scale integrated fluvial diffusive emissions. Conversely, N2O emissions from headwater and piedmont streams were low compared to lowland streams.

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“…Although N 2 O concentrations represented the lower end of the range of concentrations documented by Yao et al (2020), this was consistent with the unmanaged nature of NEON watersheds. Still, N 2 O supersaturation in the NEON streams adds to a growing body of evidence that even largely forested catchments show evidence of N 2 O production (Herreid et al 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Watershed landcover can affect stream GHG concentrations. Higher CH 4 and N 2 O concentrations typically exist in urban, wetland, and agricultural watersheds, which also have higher DOC, nitrate, and ammonium (Beaulieu et al 2008(Beaulieu et al , 2009Stanley et al 2016;Herreid et al 2021). Wetlands tend to accumulate fine sediment that become anoxic and thereby conducive to methane production, and agricultural and urban areas can contribute organic matter, nutrients, and fine sediment to the stream channel (Bresney et al 2015;Stanley et al 2016).…”

Section: Comparison To Existing Regional and Global Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variability and drivers of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O concentrations in streams across the United States

DelVecchia

Rhea

Aho

et al. 2022

Limnology & Oceanography

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Streams and rivers are major sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere, as carbon and nitrogen are converted and outgassed during transport. Although our understanding of drivers of individual GHG fluxes has improved with numerous site‐specific studies and global‐scale compilations, our ability to parse out interrelated physical and biogeochemical drivers of gas concentrations is limited by a lack of consistently collected, temporally continuous samples of GHGs and their associated drivers. We present a first analysis of such a dataset collected by the National Ecological Observatory Network across 27 streams and rivers across ecoclimatic domains of the United States. Average concentrations of CO2 ranged from 36.9 ± 0.88 to 404 ± 33 μmol L−1, CH4 from 0.003 ± 0.0003 to 4.99 ± 0.72 μmol L−1, and N2O from 0.015 to 0.04 μmol L−1 and spanned ranges of previous global compilations. Both CO2 and CH4 were strongly affected by physical drivers including mean air temperature and stream slope, as well as by dissolved oxygen and total nitrogen concentrations. N2O was exclusively correlated with total nitrogen concentrations. Results suggested that potential for gas exchange dominated patterns in gas concentrations at the site level, but contributions of in‐stream aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, and groundwater also likely varied across sites. The highest gas concentrations as well as highest variability occurred in low‐gradient, warmer, and nonperennial systems. These results are a first step in providing unprecedented, continuous estimates of GHG flux constrained by temporally variable physical and biogeochemical drivers of GHG production.

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Divergent Controls on Stream Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Across a Land-Use Gradient

Cited by 30 publications

References 58 publications

Dominance of Diffusive Methane Emissions From Lowland Headwater Streams Promotes Oxidation and Isotopic Enrichment

Dominance of Diffusive Methane Emissions From Lowland Headwater Streams Promotes Oxidation and Isotopic Enrichment

Andean headwater and piedmont streams are hot spots of carbon dioxide and methane emissions in the Amazon basin

Variability and drivers of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O concentrations in streams across the United States

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Divergent Controls on Stream Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Across a Land-Use Gradient

Cited by 30 publications

References 58 publications

Dominance of Diffusive Methane Emissions From Lowland Headwater Streams Promotes Oxidation and Isotopic Enrichment

Dominance of Diffusive Methane Emissions From Lowland Headwater Streams Promotes Oxidation and Isotopic Enrichment

Andean headwater and piedmont streams are hot spots of carbon dioxide and methane emissions in the Amazon basin

Variability and drivers of CO2, CH4, and N2O concentrations in streams across the United States

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Product

Resources

About

Variability and drivers of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O concentrations in streams across the United States