Climate change might have profound effects on the nitrogen (N) dynamics in the cultivated landscape as well as on N transport in streams and the eutrophication of lakes. N loading from land to streams is expected to increase in North European temperate lakes due to higher winter rainfall and changes in cropping patterns. Scenario (IPCC, A2) analyses using a number of models of various complexity for Danish streams and lakes suggest an increase in runoff and N transport on an annual basis (higher during winter and typically lower during summer) in streams, a slight increase in N concentrations in streams despite higher losses in riparian wetlands, higher absolute retention of N in lakes (but not as percentage of loading), but only minor changes in lake water concentrations. However, when taking into account also a predicted higher temperature there is a risk of higher frequency and abundance of potentially toxic cyanobacteria in lakes and they may stay longer during the season. Somewhat higher risk of loss of submerged macrophytes at increased N and phosphorus (P) loading and a shift to dominance of small-sized fish preying upon the key grazers on phytoplankton may also enhance the risk of lake shifts from clear to turbid in a warmer North European temperate climate. However, it must be emphasised that the prediction of N transport and thus effects is uncertain as the prediction of regional precipitation and changes in land-use is uncertain. By contrast, N loading is expected to decline in warm temperate and arid climates. However, in warm arid lakes much higher N concentrations are currently observed despite reduced external loading. This is Handling editor:
Fresh waters make a disproportionately large contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with shallow lakes being particular hot spots. Given their global prevalence, how GHG fluxes from shallow lakes are altered by climate change may have profound implications for the global carbon cycle. Empirical evidence for the temperature dependence of the processes controlling GHG production in natural systems is largely based on the correlation between seasonal temperature variation and seasonal change in GHG fluxes. However, ecosystem-level GHG fluxes could be influenced by factors, which while varying seasonally with temperature are actually either indirectly related (e.g. primary producer biomass) or largely unrelated to temperature, for instance nutrient loading. Here, we present results from the longest running shallow-lake mesocosm experiment which demonstrate that nutrient concentrations override temperature as a control of both the total and individual GHG flux. Furthermore, testing for temperature treatment effects at low and high nutrient levels separately showed only one, rather weak, positive effect of temperature (CH4 flux at high nutrients). In contrast, at low nutrients, the CO2 efflux was lower in the elevated temperature treatments, with no significant effect on CH4 or N2 O fluxes. Further analysis identified possible indirect effects of temperature treatment. For example, at low nutrient levels, increased macrophyte abundance was associated with significantly reduced fluxes of both CH4 and CO2 for both total annual flux and monthly observation data. As macrophyte abundance was positively related to temperature treatment, this suggests the possibility of indirect temperature effects, via macrophyte abundance, on CH4 and CO2 flux. These findings indicate that fluxes of GHGs from shallow lakes may be controlled more by factors indirectly related to temperature, in this case nutrient concentration and the abundance of primary producers. Thus, at ecosystem scale, response to climate change may not follow predictions based on the temperature dependence of metabolic processes.
Low-order streams are suggested to dominate the atmospheric CO 2 source of all inland waters. Yet, many large-scale stream estimates suffer from methods not designed for gas emission determination and rarely include other greenhouse gases such as CH 4 . Here, we present a compilation of directly measured CO 2 and CH 4 concentration data from Swedish low-order streams (> 1600 observations across > 500 streams) covering large climatological and land-use gradients. These data were combined with an empirically derived gas transfer model and the characteristics of a ca. 400,000 km stream network covering the entire country. The total *Correspondence: marcus.wallin@geo.uu.se Author Contribution Statement: MBW brought the idea and compiled the concentration data. MBW and TG designed the study, analyzed the data and conducted the modelling component. AC, JA, DB, KB, JK, HJ, EL, SL, SN, SB, CT and GAW provided data, ideas and catchment/region specific information. MBW wrote the manuscript with great support from all co-authors.Data Availability Statement: Data are available in the Uppsala University data repository at http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-332472.Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This article is part of the Special Issue: Carbon cycling in inland waters Edited by: Emily Stanley and Paul del Giorgio Scientific Significance StatementStreams have been identified as disproportional emitters of CO 2 to the atmosphere across all inland waters. Despite their suggested importance, reliable large-scale stream C emission data are often lacking which makes current estimates uncertain. Here, we show that Swedish low-order streams emit much higher amounts of C to the atmosphere than previously reported, corresponding to 21% of the estimated terrestrial C sequestration. We also show that local scale spatiotemporal variability in stream gas concentrations often exceeds variability across regions, and that stream surface area matters. Without such fundamental information, large-scale stream C emission estimates will always be associated with a large degree of uncertainty.1
Phosphorus loss from bank erosion was studied in the catchment of River Odense, a lowland Danish river basin, with the aim of testing the hypothesis of whether stream banks act as major diff use phosphorus (P) sources at catchment scale. Furthermore, the study aimed at analyzing the impact of diff erent factors infl uencing bank erosion and P loss such as stream order, anthropogenic disturbances, width of uncultivated buff er strips, and the vegetation of buff er strips. A random stratifi ed procedure in geographical information system (GIS) was used to select two replicate stream reaches covering diff erent stream orders, channelized vs. naturally meandering channels, width of uncultivated buff er strips (≤2 m and ≥10 m), and buff er strips with diff erent vegetation types. Th irty-six 100-m stream reaches with 180 bank plots and a total of 3000 erosion pins were established in autumn 2006, and readings were conducted during a 3-yr period (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009). Th e results show that neither stream size nor stream disturbance measured as channelization of channel or the width of uncultivated buff er strip had any signifi cant (p < 0.05) infl uence on bank erosion and P losses during each of the 3 yr studied. In buff er strips with natural trees bank erosion was signifi cantly (p < 0.05) lower than in buff er strips dominated by grass and herbs. Gross and net P input from bank erosion amounted to 13.8 to 16.5 and 2.4 to 6.3 t P, respectively, in the River Odense catchment during the three study years. Th e net P input from bank erosion equaled 17 to 29% of the annual total P export and 21 to 62% of the annual export of P from diff use sources from the River Odense catchment. Most of the exported total P was found to be bioavailable (71.7%) based on a P speciation of monthly suspended sediment samples collected at the outlet of the river basin. Th e results found in this study have a great importance for managers working with P mitigation and modeling at catchment scale. Phosphorus Load to Surface Water from Bank Erosion in a Danish Lowland River BasinBrian Kronvang,* Joachim Audet, Annette Baattrup-Pedersen, Henning S. Jensen, and Søren E. Larsen Q uantification of phosphorus (P) sources to surface waters at catchment scale involves a range of both point and diff use emissions (Sharpley and Rekolainen, 1997;Heathwaite et al., 2005;Kronvang et al., 2007). In many developed countries around the world, diff use P losses are today the dominant source in P budgets at river basin or catchment scale (Kronvang et al., 2007;Maguire et al., 2009). River basin managers need to establish knowledge of major diff use P sources to cost-eff ectively combat the eutrophication problem in surface waters (Haygarth et al., 2009). Phosphorus models are one of the methods used by river basin managers to quantify the magnitude of diff erent P pathways (Schoumans et al., 2009). Stream bank erosion is, however, seldom included in these models even though recent investigations have suggested bank erosion to be an important P source (Ha...
Globally, there are millions of kilometres of drainage ditches which have the potential to emit the powerful greenhouse gas methane (CH4), but these emissions are not reported in budgets of inland waters or drained lands. Here, we synthesise data to show that ditches spanning a global latitudinal gradient and across different land uses emit large quantities of CH4 to the atmosphere. Area-specific emissions are comparable to those from lakes, streams, reservoirs, and wetlands. While it is generally assumed that drainage negates terrestrial CH4 emissions, we find that CH4 emissions from ditches can, on average, offset ∼10% of this reduction. Using global areas of drained land we show that ditches contribute 3.5 Tg CH4 yr−1 (0.6–10.5 Tg CH4 yr−1); equivalent to 0.2%–3% of global anthropogenic CH4 emissions. A positive relationship between CH4 emissions and temperature was found, and emissions were highest from eutrophic ditches. We advocate the inclusion of ditch emissions in national GHG inventories, as neglecting them can lead to incorrect conclusions concerning the impact of drainage-based land management on CH4 budgets.
Globally, artificial river impoundment, nutrient enrichment and biodiversity loss impair freshwater ecosystem integrity. Concurrently, beavers, ecosystem engineers recognized for their ability to construct dams and create ponds, are colonizing sites across the Holarctic after widespread extirpation in the 19th century, including areas outside their historical range. This has the potential to profoundly alter hydrology, hydrochemistry and aquatic ecology in both newly colonized and recolonized areas. To further our knowledge of the effects of beaver dams on aquatic environments, we extracted 1366 effect sizes from 89 studies on the impoundment of streams and lakes. Effects were assessed for 16 factors related to hydrogeomorphology, biogeochemistry, ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Beaver dams affected concentrations of organic carbon in water, mercury in water and biota, sediment conditions and hydrological properties. There were no overall adverse effects caused by beaver dams or ponds on salmonid fish. Age was an important determinant of effect magnitude. While young ponds were a source of phosphorus, there was a tendency for phosphorus retention in older systems. Young ponds were a source methylmercury in water, but old ponds were not. To provide additional context, we also evaluated similarities and differences between environmental effects of beaver-constructed and artificial dams (767 effect sizes from 75 studies). Both are comparable in terms of effects on, for example, biodiversity, but have contrasting effects on nutrient retention and mercury. These results are important for assessing the role of beavers in enhancing and/or degrading ecological integrity in changing Holarctic freshwater systems.
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