Are hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Amazon significant sources of ‘greenhouse’ gases?

Rosa, Luiz Pinguelli; Schaeffer, Roberto; Santos, Marco Aurélio dos

doi:10.1017/s0376892900038194

Cited by 31 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This comment reflects a long-standing controversy over the estimates presented by Fearnside and the experimental results that we have obtained so far on greenhouse gases emissions by hydroelectric dams in Brazil (Rosa et al, 1996;Fearnside, 1996).…”

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confidence: 84%

“…As he himself wrote, there are other ways of calculating the CH 4 and CO 2 ratio in terms of climate change. This point has long prompted discussions between our research group and Fearnside (Rosa et al, 1995;Rosa et al, 1996). The GWP of a gas was defined by Lashof and Ahuja in 1990 as the ratio between the accumulated radiactive forcing for a time equal to zero through to a time t, resulting from the addition of one gas mass unit into the atmosphere at zero time and the accumulated radiactive forcing during the same period of time resulting from the addition of one CO 2 mass unit into the atmosphere at zero time (Lashof and Ahuja, 1990).…”

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confidence: 97%

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Scientific Errors in the Fearnside Comments on Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) from Hydroelectric Dams and Response to His Political Claiming

et al. 2006

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In the September 2004 edition of Climatic Change (N • 66), an editorial comment was published by Philip Fearnside, jointly with an article written by ourselves (Rosa et al., 2004) reporting on a broad-ranging project through which we measured CO 2 and CH 4 emissions at eleven Brazilian hydroelectric dams, from Itaipu, with the largest installed capacity in Southern Brazil, northwards to Tucuruí in Amazonia.This comment reflects a long-standing controversy over the estimates presented by Fearnside and the experimental results that we have obtained so far on greenhouse gases emissions by hydroelectric dams in Brazil (Rosa et al., 1996;Fearnside, 1996).The key issue in this latest comment by Fearnside is based on the fact that the water intake for the Tucuruí hydroelectric dam turbines is located at an average depth of 35 m, with a high methane concentration at a pressure of around three atmospheres 1 and an estimated temperature of 15 • C. This water pressure is suddenly eased after running through the turbines to the tailrace, flowing downstream from the hydroelectric dam, while it is drawn into the spillway at a depth of no more than twenty meters, far shallower than the water intake point for the turbines.The author of these comments uses the data published by us (Rosa et al., 1997) on the methane concentration measured by Tundisi 2 , who worked in cooperation with our research group. Fearnside commits a series of errors: he is confused about the transformation of units to express the Henry's constant, obtaining a value that is completely wrong; he errs when calculating the methane concentration in the water Climatic Change (2006) 75: 91-102

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confidence: 84%

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confidence: 97%

Scientific Errors in the Fearnside Comments on Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) from Hydroelectric Dams and Response to His Political Claiming

et al. 2006

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“…Newly flooded soil and vegetation can act for a limited period of time as a source of nutrients, as the inundated vegetation begins to decompose and deplete oxygen. Little basis exists for calculating and predicting such emissions from reservoirs (Rosa et al, 1996;Fearnside, 1995;Rosa et al, 1995), and most of the available data are from boreal (Northern Canada and former USSR) or tropical (Brazil) climates (Lucotte et al, 1997;Rosa et al, 1997;Rosenberg et al, 1995). During an initial period after flooding labile organic matter can decompose rapidly and therefore emissions can be huge.…”

Section: Reservoirs As Source Of Methanementioning

confidence: 99%

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Friedl¹,

Wüest

2002

Aquat sci

386

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Sustainable management of natural water resources should include environmentally sound dam construction and operation with respect to both upstream and downstream management. Because of slowly evolving alterations in riverine ecosystems following the construction of a dam -due to the sometimes large distances between dams and affected areas, and the interference with other anthropogenic activities -some of the effects of damming may be overlooked. Constructing reservoirs modifies the biogeochemical cycles, such as interrupting the flow of organic carbon, changing the nutrient balance, Aquat. Sci. 64 (2002) 55 -65

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“…Since the 1990s, possible emissions from reservoirs have attracted the attention of several researchers [33][34][35][36]. Even though it is a renewable source of energy, there are potential greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs, such as: methane (CH 4 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ).…”

Section: Recent Policies For the Development Of Hydropowermentioning

confidence: 99%

An Overview of Hydropower Reservoirs in Brazil: Current Situation, Future Perspectives and Impacts of Climate Change

Dias

Luz

Medero

et al. 2018

Water

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Global climate change, related to the greenhouse gases emission, impacts hydroelectric power generation mainly due to the increase in air temperature and changes in the precipitation patterns. As a consequence, it affects basin evapotranspiration process, runoff, sediment transport as well as evaporation of reservoirs. This study analysed the current and future Brazilian context of hydroelectric reservoirs and investigated the potential impacts of climate change on hydropower generation and possible mitigation adjustments, giving relevant examples from around the world. Moreover, it is key to consider other factors that influence the availability of water resources such as: (a) upstream development of reservoirs, mainly the development of agricultural systems, which can contribute to increased water demand; (b) changes in land use, which can have an impact on soil degradation and sediment transport. Hydroelectric dams are a possible alternative to mitigate the impacts of climate change considering that those impacts could generate the need of adaptive actions. The assessment of climate change impacts' projections anticipates possible future scenarios and can assist in strategic planning together with the definition of adaptive operational policies.

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Are hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Amazon significant sources of ‘greenhouse’ gases?

Cited by 31 publications

References 7 publications

Scientific Errors in the Fearnside Comments on Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) from Hydroelectric Dams and Response to His Political Claiming

Scientific Errors in the Fearnside Comments on Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) from Hydroelectric Dams and Response to His Political Claiming

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An Overview of Hydropower Reservoirs in Brazil: Current Situation, Future Perspectives and Impacts of Climate Change

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