Organic carbon decomposition rates controlled by water retention time across inland waters

Catalán, Núria; Marcé, Rafael; Kothawala, Dolly N.; Tranvik, Lars J.

doi:10.1038/ngeo2720

Cited by 344 publications

(372 citation statements)

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“…Although the river continuum concept has been useful in explaining gradual longitudinal variations in CO 2 from headwater streams to lowland rivers corresponding to the changing balance between autotrophy and heterotrophy (Borges and Abril, 2012;Koehler et al, 2012;Catalán et al, 2016;Hotchkiss et al, 2015), it has been increasingly recognized that rivers are often divided into discrete 450 segments such as reaches impounded by dams (Ward and Stanford, 1983;Poole, 2002) and eutrophic reaches receiving wastewater (Garnier and Billen, 2007;Yoon et al, 2017;Park et al, 2018). Previous studies of DOM biodegradation have often assumed a selective degradation of labile components of riverine organic matter along the continuum with minimal to low levels of anthropogenic perturbations (Koehler et al, 2012;Weyhenmeyer et al, 2012;Catalán et al, 2016). Reachspecific significance levels observed for the correlations between GHGs and DOC or its optical properties ( Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal discontinuities in riverine greenhouse gas dynamics generated by dams and urban wastewater

Jin¹,

Yoon²,

Begum³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract.Riverine emissions of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) represent crucial, but poorly constrained components of the global GHG budgets. Three major GHGs -CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O -have rarely been measured simultaneously in river systems modified by human activities, adding uncertainties to the estimates of global riverine GHG emissions. Measurements of C isotopes in dissolved organic carbon (DOC), CO 2 , and CH 4 were combined with basin-wide surveys of three GHGs in the Han 15 River, South Korea to investigate the effects of dams and urban water pollution as primary controls on GHG dynamics in the highly human-impacted river basin with a population >25 million. Monthly monitoring and two-season comparison were conducted at 6 and 15 sites, respectively, to measure surface water concentrations of three GHGs, along with DOC and its optical properties. The basin-wide surveys were complemented with a boat cruise along the lower reach and synoptic samplings along a polluted tributary delivering effluents from a large wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to the lower reach. The basin-20 wide surveys of three GHGs revealed distinct increases in the concentrations of three gases along the lower reach receiving urban tributaries enriched in GHGs and DOC. Compared to the spatial patterns of GHGs observed in the upper and lower reaches, the levels of pCO 2 were consistently lower across the impounded middle reach, whereas concentrations of CH 4 and N 2 O were relatively high in some impoundment-affected sites. Similar levels and temporal variations in three GHGs at the WWTP effluents and the receiving tributary indicated a disproportionate contribution of the WWTP to the tributary exports of 25 DOC and GHGs. Measurements of δ 13 C in surface water CO 2 and CH 4 sampled during the cruise along the lower reach, combined with δ 13 C and Δ 14 C in dissolved organic matter (DOM) sampled across the basin, implied that longitudinal decreases in Δ 14 C in DOM mighte be associated with wastewater-derived, old DOM in urban tributaries, which, together with enhanced photosynthesis and CH 4 oxidation in the eutrophic lower reach, appear to constrain downstream changes in δ 13 C in CO 2 and CH 4 . The overall results suggest that dams and urban wastewater may create longitudinal discontinuities in riverine metabolic 30 processes leading to large spatial variations in three GHGs. Further research is required to evaluate the relative contributions Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal discontinuities in riverine greenhouse gas dynamics generated by dams and urban wastewater

Jin¹,

Yoon²,

Begum³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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“…The latter brings about a shorter residence time of lakes, whose size changes, especially at southern latitudes, due to the disappearance of sporadic and isolated permafrost. It is also worth noting the primary role of lakes in controlling greenhouse gas exchange with the atmosphere, both in permafrost-free [21,22] and permafrost-bearing regions [9,[23][24][25][26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size Distribution, Surface Coverage, Water, Carbon, and Metal Storage of Thermokarst Lakes in the Permafrost Zone of the Western Siberia Lowland

Polishchuk

Bogdanov²,

Polishchuk

et al. 2017

Water

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Despite the importance of thermokarst (thaw) lakes of the subarctic zone in regulating greenhouse gas exchange with the atmosphere and the flux of metal pollutants and micro-nutrients to the ocean, the inventory of lake distribution and stock of solutes for the permafrost-affected zone are not available. We quantified the abundance of thermokarst lakes in the continuous, discontinuous, and sporadic permafrost zones of the western Siberian Lowland (WSL) using Landsat-8 scenes collected over the summers of 2013 and 2014. In a territory of 105 million ha, the total number of lakes >0.5 ha is 727,700, with a total surface area of 5.97 million ha, yielding an average lake coverage of 5.69% of the territory. Small lakes (0.5-1.0 ha) constitute about one third of the total number of lakes in the permafrost-bearing zone of WSL, yet their surface area does not exceed 2.9% of the total area of lakes in WSL. The latitudinal pattern of lake number and surface coverage follows the local topography and dominant landscape zones. The role of thermokarst lakes in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and most trace element storage in the territory of WSL is non-negligible compared to that of rivers. The annual lake storage across the WSL of DOC, Cd, Pb, Cr, and Al constitutes 16%, 34%, 37%, 57%, and 73%, respectively, of their annual delivery by WSL rivers to the Arctic Ocean from the same territory. However, given that the concentrations of DOC and metals in the smallest lakes (<0.5 ha) are much higher than those in the medium and large lakes, the contribution of small lakes to the overall carbon and metal budget may be comparable to, or greater than, their contribution to the water storage. As such, observations at high spatial resolution (<0.5 ha) are needed to constrain the reservoirs and the mobility of carbon and metals in aquatic systems. To upscale the DOC and metal storage in lakes of the whole subarctic, the remote sensing should be coupled with hydrochemical measurements in aquatic systems of boreal plains.

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“…Inland waters are recognized as efficient bioreactors where terrestrial OM is rapidly decomposed due to ideal conditions for microbial metabolism (Richey et al, 2002). As such, OM is relatively short-lived in inland waters with a mean residence time of roughly 2.5 ± 4.7 years, compared to centennial to millennial-scale residence times in soils, oceans, and sediments (Catalán et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where Carbon Goes When Water Flows: Carbon Cycling across the Aquatic Continuum

et al. 2017

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The purpose of this review is to highlight progress in unraveling carbon cycling dynamics across the continuum of landscapes, inland waters, coastal oceans, and the atmosphere. Earth systems are intimately interconnected, yet most biogeochemical studies focus on specific components in isolation. The movement of water drives the carbon cycle, and, as such, inland waters provide a critical intersection between terrestrial and marine biospheres. Inland, estuarine, and coastal waters are well studied in regions near centers of human population in the Northern hemisphere. However, many of the world's large river systems and their marine receiving waters remain poorly characterized, particularly in the tropics, which contribute to a disproportionately large fraction of the transformation of terrestrial organic matter to carbon dioxide, and the Arctic, where positive feedback mechanisms are likely to amplify global climate change. There are large gaps in current coverage of environmental observations along the aquatic continuum. For example, tidally-influenced reaches of major rivers and near-shore coastal regions around river plumes are often left out of carbon budgets due to a combination of methodological constraints and poor data coverage. We suggest that closing these gaps could potentially alter global estimates of CO 2 outgassing from surface waters to the atmosphere by several-fold. Finally, in order to identify and constrain/embrace uncertainties in global carbon budget estimations it is important that we further adopt statistical and modeling approaches that have become well-established in the fields of oceanography and paleoclimatology, for example.

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Organic carbon decomposition rates controlled by water retention time across inland waters

Cited by 344 publications

References 44 publications

Longitudinal discontinuities in riverine greenhouse gas dynamics generated by dams and urban wastewater

Longitudinal discontinuities in riverine greenhouse gas dynamics generated by dams and urban wastewater

Size Distribution, Surface Coverage, Water, Carbon, and Metal Storage of Thermokarst Lakes in the Permafrost Zone of the Western Siberia Lowland

Where Carbon Goes When Water Flows: Carbon Cycling across the Aquatic Continuum

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