Integrating aquatic carbon fluxes in a boreal catchment carbon budget

Jönsson, Anders; Algesten, Grete; Bergström, Ann‐Kristin; Bishop, Kevin; Sobek, Sebastian; Tranvik, Lars J.; Jansson, Mats

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2006.10.003

Cited by 121 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(78 reference statements)

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“…Dawson et al, 2004;Jonsson et al, 2007;Dinsmore et al, 2010). It is produced through biological activity including plant exudation and decomposition processes, although its transport into drainage waters is also influenced by hydrological factors (e.g.…”

Section: 'On-site' and 'Off-site' Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dawson et al (2001) estimated that 12-18% of DOC was removed within a 2 km peat stream reach, and Moody et al (2013) estimated that 50-70% of all DOC would be mineralised within the residence time of an 800 km 2 UK river system. Jonsson et al (2007) estimated that 45% of all terrestrially-derived organic carbon was mineralised and evaded as CO2 within a 3000 km 2 mixed boreal catchment, with sedimentation negligible and the remainder exported to the sea. For a 6400 km 2 lake-rich catchment in the Northern United States, Buffam et al (2011) estimated that 33% of terrestrial C inputs to the aquatic system were degassed as CO2, 2% as CH4, 26% accumulated in sediments and 40% transported downstream.…”

Section: Contribution Of Peat Doc Fluxes To Co2 Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and re-wetted peatlands

2015

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Article (refereed) -postprintEvans, Chris D.; Renou-Wilson, Flo; Strack, Maria. 2016. The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and rewetted peatlands [in special issue: Carbon cycling in aquatic ecosystems] Aquatic Sciences, 78 (3). 573-590. 10.1007/s00027-015-0447-y Contact CEH NORA team at noraceh@ceh.ac.ukThe NERC and CEH trademarks and logos ('the Trademarks') are registered trademarks of NERC in the UK and other countries, and may not be used without the prior written consent of the Trademark owner.The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and re-wetted peatlands AbstractAccounting for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals in managed ecosystems has generally focused on direct land-atmosphere fluxes, but in peatlands a significant proportion of total carbon loss occurs via fluvial transport. This study considers the composition of this 'waterborne carbon' flux, its potential contribution to GHG emissions, and the extent to which it may change in response to land-management. The work describes, and builds on, a methodology to account for major components of these emissions developed for the 2013 Wetland Supplement of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We identify two major components of GHG emissions from waterbodies draining organic soil: i) 'on site' emissions of methane (and to a lesser extent CO2) from drainage ditches located within the peatland; and ii) 'off site' emissions of CO2 resulting from downstream oxidation of dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOC and POC) within the aquatic system. Methane emissions from ditches were found to be large in many cases (mean 60 g CH4 m -2 yr -1 based on all reported values), countering the view that methane emissions cease following wetland drainage. Emissions were greatest from ditches in intensive agricultural peatlands, but data were sparse and showed high variability. For DOC, the magnitude of the natural flux varied strongly with latitude, from 5 g C m -2 yr -1 in northern boreal peatlands to 60 g C m -2 yr -1 in tropical peatlands. Available data suggest that DOC fluxes increase by around 60% following drainage, and that this increase may be reversed in the longer-term through re-wetting, although variability between studies was high, especially in relation to re-wetting response. Evidence regarding the fate of DOC is complex and inconclusive, but overall suggests that the majority of DOC exported from peatlands is converted to CO2 through photo-and/or bio-degradation in rivers, standing waters and oceans. The contribution of POC export to GHG emissions is even more uncertain, but we estimate that over half of exported POC may eventually be converted to CO2. Although POC fluxes are normally small, they can become very large when bare peat surfaces are exposed to fluvial erosion. Overall, we estimate that waterborne carbon emissions may contribute about 1 to 4 t CO2-eq ha -1 yr -1 of additional GHG emissions from drained peatlands. For a number of worked examples this repres...

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Section: 'On-site' and 'Off-site' Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contribution Of Peat Doc Fluxes To Co2 Emissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and re-wetted peatlands

2015

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“…Although this range of variation is most likely within the uncertainty of the various estimates, the variability across different landscapes is certainly small in comparison to the order of magnitude differences in potential controlling factors like catchment NPP, fractional water coverage as well as size and climatic zone of the study area. In lake-rich regions, evasion from inland waters was observed to be dominated by lakes (Buffam et al, 2011;Jonsson et al, 2007), which cover up to 13 % of the surface area of those regions. In the present study, as well as in other studies on catchments where lakes are virtually absent (Wallin et al, 2013) and the fractional water coverage was smaller than 0.5 % of the terrestrial surface area, an almost identical Table 3.…”

Section: Controlling Factors For Aquatic C-exportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Only few studies have quantified C fluxes and pools including inland waters at the regional scale (10 3 -10 4 km 2 ) (Chris-tensen et al, 2007;Buffam et al, 2011;Jonsson et al, 2007;Maberly et al, 2013) or for small (1-10 km 2 ) catchments (Leach et al, 2016;Shibata et al, 2005;Billett et al, 2004). The majority of existing regional-scale studies on terrestrialaquatic C fluxes are from the boreal zone and are characterized by a relatively large fractional surface area covered by inland waters, a high abundance of lakes and high fluvial loads of dissolved organic carbon (DOC).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional-scale lateral carbon transport and CO<sub>2</sub> evasion in temperate stream catchments

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Inland waters play an important role in regional to global-scale carbon cycling by transporting, processing and emitting substantial amounts of carbon, which originate mainly from their catchments. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between terrestrial net primary production (NPP) and the rate at which carbon is exported from the catchments in a temperate stream network. The analysis included more than 200 catchment areas in southwest Germany, ranging in size from 0.8 to 889 km 2 for which CO 2 evasion from stream surfaces and downstream transport with stream discharge were estimated from water quality monitoring data, while NPP in the catchments was obtained from a global data set based on remote sensing. We found that on average 13.9 g C m −2 yr −1 (corresponding to 2.7 % of terrestrial NPP) are exported from the catchments by streams and rivers, in which both CO 2 evasion and downstream transport contributed about equally to this flux. The average carbon fluxes in the catchments of the study area resembled global and large-scale zonal mean values in many respects, including NPP, stream evasion and the carbon export per catchment area in the fluvial network. A review of existing studies on aquatic-terrestrial coupling in the carbon cycle suggests that the carbon export per catchment area varies in a relatively narrow range, despite a broad range of different spatial scales and hydrological characteristics of the study regions.

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“…Some studies (Dawson et al 2004;Temnerud et al 2007) found little evidence of DOC processing, whilst other studies have suggested removal rates in the region of 10-20 % within small headwater catchments (Billett et al 2006;Dawson et al 2001), and higher rates in larger catchments (Algesten et al 2004;Jonsson et al 2007) and under field experimental conditions (up to 76 % decline in DOC; Moody et al 2013). There have also been some studies providing evidence that DOC can be removed from the water column during water transit through the freshwaterseawater interface (Spencer et al 2007;Uher et al 2001), although once again other studies in different estuarine systems have concluded that DOC is fairly unreactive (Alvarez-Salgado and Miller 1998;Amon and Meon 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Sporadic hotspots for physico-chemical retention of aquatic organic carbon: from peatland headwater source to sea

et al. 2015

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Few studies have quantified the role of instream processes on net dissolved and particulate organic carbon (DOC and POC, respectively) export from peatland catchments, and those that have offer conflicting evidence. In this study, we evaluated evidence for active organic matter processing under field conditions, via a coordinated campaign across four UK catchments with peatland headwaters, targeted on potential 'hotspots' and 'hot moments' of physico-chemical carbon cycling. We hypothesised that specific hotspots and hot moments would occur where waters enriched with DOC and POC sourced from headwaters are exposed to: (1) mixing with freshwaters of different pH, conductivity and metal concentrations; and (2) mixing with seawater during autumn when DOC concentrations were at their highest. We observed instances of POC removal in headwaters, and potential for rapid conversion between dissolved and particulate carbon forms and for net removal of peat-derived carbon at confluences further downstream (where observed, on the order of 52-75 % for POC, and 5-44 % for DOC). Estuary transect surveys indicated that up to 30 % of fluvial DOC can be removed under high flow conditions. However, in the majority of cases concentrations remained within the range that would be expected based on conservative transport. These findings indicate that rapid (e.g. solubility-related) processes within the river system may be important but sporadic, thus are unlikely to provide major removal pathways for peat-derived organic carbon.

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Integrating aquatic carbon fluxes in a boreal catchment carbon budget

Cited by 121 publications

References 59 publications

The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and re-wetted peatlands

The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and re-wetted peatlands

Regional-scale lateral carbon transport and CO<sub>2</sub> evasion in temperate stream catchments

Sporadic hotspots for physico-chemical retention of aquatic organic carbon: from peatland headwater source to sea

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Integrating aquatic carbon fluxes in a boreal catchment carbon budget

Cited by 121 publications

References 59 publications

The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and re-wetted peatlands

The role of waterborne carbon in the greenhouse gas balance of drained and re-wetted peatlands

Regional-scale lateral carbon transport and CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; evasion in temperate stream catchments

Sporadic hotspots for physico-chemical retention of aquatic organic carbon: from peatland headwater source to sea

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Regional-scale lateral carbon transport and CO<sub>2</sub> evasion in temperate stream catchments