Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is a significant (>700 Pg) global C pool. Transport of terrestrial DOM to the inland waters and coastal zones represents the largest flux of reduced C from land to water (215 Tg yr(-1)) (Meybeck, M. Am. J. Sci. 1983, 282, 401-450). Oxidation of DOM by interdependent photochemical and biochemical processes largely controls the fate of DOM entering surface waters. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have been hypothesized to play a significant role in the photooxidation of DOM, because they may oxidize the fraction of DOM that is inaccessible to direct photochemical degradation by sunlight. We followed the effects of photochemically produced singlet oxygen ((1)O(2)) on DOM by mass spectrometry with (18)O-labeled oxygen, to understand how (1)O(2)-mediated transformations of DOM may lead to altered DOM bioavailability. The photochemical oxygen uptake by DOM attributed to (1)O(2) increased with DOM concentration, yet it remained a minority contributor to photochemical oxygen uptake even at very high DOM concentrations. When DOM samples were exposed to (1)O(2)-generating conditions (Rose Bengal and visible light), increases were observed in DOM constituents with higher oxygen content and release of H(2)O(2) was detected. Differential effects of H(2)O(2) and (1)O(2)-treated DOM showed that (1)O(2)-treated DOM led to slower bacterial growth rates relative to unmodified DOM. Results of this study suggested that the net effect of the reactions between singlet oxygen and DOM may be production of partially oxidized substrates with correspondingly lower potential biological energy yield.

Many inland waters exhibit complete or partial desiccation, or have vanished due to global change, exposing sediments to the atmosphere. Yet, data on carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from these sediments are too scarce to upscale emissions for global estimates or to understand their fundamental drivers. Here, we present the results of a global survey covering 196 dry inland waters across diverse ecosystem types and climate zones. We show that their CO 2 emissions share fundamental drivers and constitute a substantial fraction of the carbon cycled by inland waters. CO 2 emissions were consistent across ecosystem types and climate zones, with local characteristics explaining much of the variability. Accounting for such emissions increases global estimates of carbon emissions from inland waters by 6% (~0.12 Pg C y −1). Our results indicate that emissions from dry inland waters represent a significant and likely increasing component of the inland waters carbon cycle.

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) photochemical reactions establish important links between DOC and planktonic bacteria. We hypothesize that seasonal changes in DOC quality, related to the flood pulse, drive the effects of light-DOC interactions on uptake by planktonic bacteria uptake in clear-water Amazonian ecosystems. Water samples from two ecosystems (one lake and one stream) were incubated in sunlight during different hydrological periods and were then exposed to bacterial degradation. Photochemical and bacterial degradation were driven by seasonal DOC inputs. Bacterial mineralization was the main degradation pathway of autochthonous DOC in the lake, while allochthonous DOC was more available for photochemical oxidation. We suggest that sunlight enhances the bacterial uptake of refractory DOC but does not alter uptake of labile forms. We also observed a positive relationship between sunlight and bacterial degradation of DOC, instead of competition. We conclude that photochemical reactions and bacteria complementarily degrade the different sources of DOC during the flood pulse in Amazonian clear-water aquatic ecosystems.

Although only a small amount of the Earth's water exists as continental surface water bodies, this compartment plays an important role in the biogeochemical cycles connecting the land to the atmosphere. The territory of Brazil encompasses a dense river net and enormous number of shallow lakes. Human actions have been heavily influenced by the inland waters across the country. Both biodiversity and processes in the water are strongly driven by seasonal fluvial forces and/or precipitation. These macro drivers are sensitive to climate changes. In addition to their crucial importance to humans, inland waters are extremely rich ecosystems, harboring high biodiversity, promoting landscape equilibrium (connecting ecosystems, maintaining animal and plant flows in the landscape, and transferring mass, nutrients and inocula), and controlling regional climates through hydrological-cycle feedback. In this contribution, we describe the aquatic ecological responses to climate change in a conceptual perspective, and we then analyze the possible climate-change scenarios in different regions in Brazil. We also indentify some potential biogeochemical signals in running waters, natural lakes and man-made impoundments. The possible future changes in climate and aquatic ecosystems in Brazil are highly uncertain. Inland waters are pressured by local environmental changes because of land uses, landscape fragmentation, damming and diversion of water bodies, urbanization, wastewater load, and level of pollutants can alter biogeochemical patterns in inland waters over a shorter term than can climate changes. In fact, many intense environmental changes may enhance the effects of changes in climate. Therefore, the maintenance of key elements within the landscape and avoiding extreme perturbation in the systems are urgent to maintain the sustainability of Brazilian inland waters, in order to prevent more catastrophic future events.

The main goal of this research was to evaluate whether the mixture of fresh labile dissolved organic matter (DOM) and accumulated refractory DOM influences bacterial production, respiration, and growth efficiency (BGE) in aquatic ecosystems. Bacterial batch cultures were set up using DOM leached from aquatic macrophytes as the fresh DOM pool and DOM accumulated from a tropical humic lagoon. Two sets of experiments were performed and bacterial growth was followed in cultures composed of each carbon substrate (first experiment) and by carbon substrates combined (second experiment), with and without the addition of nitrogen and phosphorus. In both experiments, bacterial production, respiration, and BGE were always higher in cultures with N and P additions, indicating a consistent inorganic nutrient limitation. Bacterial production, respiration, and BGE were higher in cultures set up with leachate DOM than in cultures set up with humic DOM, indicating that the quality of the organic matter pool influenced the bacterial growth. Bacterial production and respiration were higher in the mixture of substrates (second experiment) than expected by bacterial production and respiration in single substrate cultures (first experiment). We suggest that the differences in the concentration of some compounds between DOM sources, the co-metabolism on carbon compound decomposition, and the higher diversity of molecules possibly support a greater bacterial diversity which might explain the higher bacterial growth observed. Finally, our results indicate that the mixture of fresh labile and accumulated refractory DOM that naturally occurs in aquatic ecosystems could accelerate the bacterial growth and bacterial DOM removal.

In this paper, we report the seasonal variation of photo-oxidation rates in a tropical humic lagoon and its relation to annual rainfall regime. Photo-oxidation rates ranged from 8.96 to 415.06 µmol C·L–1·day–1, being higher in the beginning to middle of the rainy season and declining throughout the year. Although dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration, water color, and sunlight incidence were generally higher in the rainy season, photo-oxidation rates were not significantly related to any of these parameters. Photo-oxidation seems to be influenced mainly by changes in DOC photoreactivity, which was up to threefold higher early in the rainy season, when inputs of fresh allochthonous DOC take place. In the following months, in addition to being continuously degraded by sunlight, DOC is also removed from the water column by processes such as microbial degradation and sedimentation, leading to a decline in DOC concentration and photoreactivity throughout the year until the next rainy season. Thus, the dynamics of DOC inputs caused by the rainfall regime in Comprida Lagoon lead to a yearly pulse of DOC photoreactivity and photo-oxidation rates. We believe this pulse model also fits other aquatic ecosystems subject to similar seasonal inputs of allochthonous DOC, although rainfall would not necessarily be the driving factor.

More detailed studies using C- and N-stable isotope techniques and modeling approaches are needed to better understand the actual importance of HS to carbon cycling in highly humic waters.

Current models and observations indicate that bacterial respiration should increase and growth efficiency (BGE) should decrease with increasing temperatures. However, these models and observations are mostly derived from data collected in temperate regions, and the tropics are under-represented. The aim of this work was to compare bacterial metabolism, namely bacterial production (BP) and respiration (BR), bacterial growth efficiency (BGE) and bacterial carbon demand (BCD) between tropical and temperate ecosystems via a literature review and using unpublished data. We hypothesized that (1) tropical ecosystems have higher metabolism than temperate ones and, (2) that BGE is lower in tropical relative to temperate ecosystems. We collected a total of 498 coupled BP and BR observations (Ntotal = 498; Ntemperate = 301; Ntropical = 197), calculated BGE (BP/(BP+BR)) and BCD (BP+BR) for each case and examined patterns using a model II regression analysis and compared each parameter between the two regions using non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test. We observed a significant positive linear regression between BR and BP for the whole dataset, and also for tropical and temperate data separately. We found that BP, BR and BCD were higher in the tropics, but BGE was lower compared to temperate regions. Also, BR rates per BP unit were at least two fold higher in the tropics than in temperate ecosystems. We argue that higher temperature, nutrient limitation, and light exposure all contribute to lower BGE in the tropics, mediated through effects on thermodynamics, substrate stoichiometry, nutrient availability and interactions with photochemically produced compounds. More efforts are needed in this study area in the tropics, but our work indicates that bottom-up (nutrient availability and resource stoichiometry) and top-down (grazer pressure) processes, coupled with thermodynamic constraints, might contribute to the lower BGE in the tropics relative to temperate regions.