Abstract
Carbon dioxide (CO2) transfer from inland waters to the atmosphere, known as CO2 evasion, is a component of the global carbon cycle. Global estimates of CO2 evasion have been hampered, however, by the lack of a framework for estimating the inland water surface area and gas transfer velocity and by the absence of a global CO2 database. Here we report regional variations in global inland water surface area, dissolved CO2 and gas transfer velocity. We obtain global CO2 evasion rates of 1.8 petagrams of carbon (Pg C) per year from streams and rivers and 0.32
Pg C yr−1 from lakes and reservoirs, where the upper and lower limits are respectively the 5th and 95th confidence interval percentiles. The resulting global evasion rate of 2.1 Pg C yr−1 is higher than previous estimates owing to a larger stream and river evasion rate. Our analysis predicts global hotspots in stream and river evasion, with about 70 per cent of the flux occurring over just 20 per cent of the land surface. The source of inland water CO2 is still not known with certainty and new studies are needed to research the mechanisms controlling CO2 evasion globally.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
£199.00 per year
only £3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
19 March 2014
An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13142
References
Le Quéré, C. et al. Trends in the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide. Nature Geosci. 2, 831–836 (2009)
Kempe, S. Sinks of the anthropogenically enhanced carbon cycle in surface fresh waters. J. Geophys. Res. 89, 4657–4676 (1984)
Park, P. K., Hager, S. W. & Cissell, M. C. Carbon dioxide partial pressure in the Columbia river. Science 166, 867–868 (1969)
Raymond, P. A., Caraco, N. F. & Cole, J. J. Carbon dioxide concentration and atmospheric flux in the Hudson River. Estuaries 20, 381–390 (1997)
Frankignoulle, M. et al. Carbon dioxide emission from European estuaries. Science 282, 434–436 (1998)
Kling, G. W., Kipphut, G. W. & Miller, M. C. Arctic lakes and streams as gas conduits to the atmosphere: implications for tundra carbon budgets. Science 251, 298–301 (1991)
Richey, J. E., Melack, J. M., Aufdenkampe, A. K., Ballester, V. M. & Hess, L. L. Carbon dioxide evasion from central Amazonian wetlands as a significant source of atmospheric CO2 in the tropics. Nature 416, 617–620 (2002)
Johnson, M. S. et al. CO2 efflux from Amazonian headwater streams represents a significant fate for deep soil respiration. Geophys. Res. Lett. 35, L17401 (2008)
Butman, D. & Raymond, P. A. Significant efflux of carbon dioxide from streams and rivers in the United States. Nature Geosci. 4, 839–842 (2011)
Aufdenkampe, A. K. et al. Rivering coupling of biogeochemical cycles between land, oceans and atmosphere. Front. Ecol. Environ 9, 53–60 (2011)
Battin, T. J. et al. The boundless carbon cycle. Nature Geosci. 2, 598–600 (2009)
Cole, J. J. et al. Plumbing the global carbon cycle: integrating inland waters into the terrestrial carbon budget. Ecosystems 10, 172–185 (2007)
Richey, J. E. in The Global Carbon Cycle: Integrating Humans, Climate and the Natural World (eds Field, C. B. & Raupach, M. R. ) 329–341 (Scope 62, Island, 2004)
Downing, J. A. & Duarte, C. M. in Encyclopedia of Inland Waters 469–478 (Academic, 2009)
Lehner, B. & Doll, P. Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. J. Hydrol. 296, 1–22 (2004)
McDonald, C. P., Rover, J. A., Stets, E. G. & Striegl, R. G. The regional abundance and size distribution of lakes and reservoirs in the United States and implications for estimates of global lake extent. Limnol. Oceanogr. 57, 597–606 (2012)
Buffam, I. et al. Integrating aquatic and terrestrial components to construct a complete carbon budget for a north temperate lake district. Glob. Change Biol. 17, 1193–1211 (2011)
Christensen, T. R. et al. A catchment-scale carbon and greenhouse gas budget of a subarctic landscape. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 365, 1643–1656 (2007)
Humborg, C. et al. CO2 supersaturation along the aquatic conduit in Swedish watersheds as constrained by terrestrial respiration, aquatic respiration and weathering. Glob. Change Biol. 16, 1966–1978 (2009)
Jonsson, A. et al. Integrating aquatic carbon fluxes in a boreal catchment carbon budget. J. Hydrol. 334, 141–150 (2007)
Cole, J. J. & Caraco, N. F. Atmospheric exchange of carbon dioxide in a low-wind oligotrophic lake measured by the addition of SF6. Limnol. Oceanogr. 43, 647–656 (1998)
Read, J. S. et al. Lake-size dependency of wind shear and convection as controls on gas exchange. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, L09405 (2012)
Striegl, R. G., Dornblaser, M. M., McDonald, C. P., Rover, J. R. & Stets, E. G. Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from the Yukon River system. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 26, GB0E05 (2012)
Lehner, B., Verdin, K. & Jarvis, J. New global hydrograph derived from spaceborne elevation data. Eos 89, 93–94 (2008)
Dodds, P. S. & Rothman, D. H. Geometry of river networks. I. Scaling, fluctuations, and deviations. Physical Rev. E 63, 016115 (2001)
Leopold, L. B. & Maddock, T. Geological Survey Professional Paper 252 57 (US Government Printing Office, 1953)
Fekete, B. M., Vorosmarty, C. J. & Grabs, W. High-resolution fields of global runoff combining observed river discharge and simulated water balances. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 16, 15 (2002)
Alin, S. R. et al. Physical controls on carbon dioxide transfer velocity and flux in low-gradient river systems and implications for regional carbon budgets. J. Geophys. Res. 116, G01009 (2011)
Raymond, P. A. et al. Scaling the gas transfer velocity and hydraulic geometry in streams and small rivers. Limnol. Oceanogr. Fluids Environ. 2, 41–53 (2012)
Lauerwald, R., Hartmann, J., Moosdorf, N., Kempe, S. & Raymond, P. A. What controls the spatial patterns of the riverine carbonate system? A case study for North America. Chem. Geol. 337–338, 114–127 (2013)
Meybeck, M., Durr, H. H. & Vorosmarty, C. J. Global coastal segmentation and its river catchment contributors: a new look at land-ocean linkage. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 20, GB1S90 (2006)
Prigent, C., Papa, F., Aires, F., Rossow, W. B. & Matthews, E. Global inundation dynamics inferred from multiple satellite observations, 1993–2000. J. Geophys. Res. 112, D12107 (2007)
Downing, J. A. et al. Global abundance and size distribution of streams and rivers. Inland Wat. 2, 229–236 (2012)
Downing, J. A. et al. The global abundance and size distribution of lakes, ponds, and impoundments. Limnol. Oceanogr. 51, 2388–2397 (2006)
Meybeck, M. in Physics and Chemistry of Lakes (eds Lerman, D., Imboden, M. & Gat, J. R. ) 1–35 (Springer, 1995)
Cole, J. J. & Caraco, N. F. Carbon in catchments: connecting terrestrial carbon losses with aquatic metabolism. Mar. Freshw. Res. 52, 101–110 (2001)
Abril, G. et al. Carbon dioxide and methane emissions and the carbon budget of a 10-year old tropical reservoir (Petit Saut, French Guiana). Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 19, GB4007 (2005)
Barros, N. et al. Carbon emission from hydroelectric reservoirs linked to reservoir age and latitude. Nature Geosci. 4, 593–596 (2011)
McDonald, C. P., Stets, E. G. & Striegl, R. G. B. D. Inorganic carbon loading as a primary driver of dissolved carbon dioxide concentrations in lakes and reservoirs of the contiguous United States. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 27, 285–295 (2013)
Tranvik, L. J. et al. Lakes and reservoirs as regulators of carbon cycling and climate. Limnol. Oceanogr. 54, 2298–2314 (2009)
Cole, J. J., Caraco, N. F., Kling, G. W. & Kratz, T. K. Carbon dioxide supersaturation in the surface waters of lakes. Science 265, 1568–1570 (1994)
Kortelainen, P. et al. Sediment respiration and lake trophic state are important predictors of large CO2 evasion from small boreal lakes. Glob. Change Biol. 12, 1554–1567 (2006)
Duarte, C. M. et al. CO2 emissions from saline lakes: a global estimate of a surprisingly large flux. J. Geophys. Res. 113, G04041 (2008)
Maberly, S. C., Barker, P. A., Stott, A. W. & De Ville, M. M. Catchment productivity controls CO2 emissions from lakes. Nature Clim. Change 3, 391–394 (2013)
Davidson, E. A., Figueiredo, R. O., Markewitz, D. & Aufdenkampe, A. K. Dissolved CO2 in small catchment streams of eastern Amazonia: a minor pathway of terrestrial carbon loss. J. Geophys. Res. 115, G04005 (2010)
Lauerwald, R., Hartmann, J., Ludwig, W. & Moosdorf, N. Assessing the nonconservative fluvial fluxes of dissolved organic carbon in North America. J. Geophys. Res. 117, G01027 (2012)
Abril, G. et al. Amazon River carbon dioxide outgassing fuelled by wetlands. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12797 (in the press)
Sabine, C. L. et al. in The Global Carbon Cycle: Integrating Humans, Climate and the Natural World (eds Field, C. B. & Raupach, M. R. ) 17–45 (Scope 62, Island, 2004)
Raymond, P. A., Oh, N. H., Turner, R. E. & Broussard, W. Anthropogenically enhanced fluxes of water and carbon from the Mississippi River. Nature 451, 449–452 (2008)
Regnier, P. et al. Anthropogenic perturbation of the carbon fluxes from land to ocean. Nature Geosci. 6, 597–607 (2013)
Acknowledgements
P.A.R. and M.H were partly funded by a NASA grant (NNX11AH68G) to P.A.R. P.A.R. also received support from a fellowship from L-IPSL labex program. S.S. was supported by Formas. R.L. and J.H. were funded by the EU project GeoCarbon (U4603EUU1104) and by DFG (EXC 177 and DFG HA 4472/6-1). This represents a contribution to the RECCAP process. R.S. and D.B. are part of the Inland Water Science Group of the USGS LandCarbon Project.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
P.A.R. designed and performed this analysis and wrote most of the paper. S.S. performed the lake and reservoir CO2 and k analyses, and C.M. modelled lake and reservoir area data and provided material for these calculations for Supplementary Information. P.K. provided data and helped with lake analyses. R.L. and J.H. produced the global CO2 data set. M.H. provided the GIS technical input. D.B. assisted with the GIS technical input and overall analysis and helped produce the figures. R.S. provided input on the use of USGS data and contributed to the overall analysis. E.M. provided COSCAT data on global discharge and dissolved organic carbon. H.D. provided COSCAT information and input on GIS analysis. P.K., C.H. and M.M. provided data for the lake CO2 global data set. P.C. provided assistance with the sensitivity analysis and writing the final paragraph. P.G. provided data necessary to determine average watershed area for COSCAT regions. All authors read and commented on drafts of this paper.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
This file contains Supplementary Text and Data, Supplementary Tables 1-4, Supplementary Figures 1-7 and additional references. (PDF 1137 kb)
PowerPoint slides
Source data
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Raymond, P., Hartmann, J., Lauerwald, R. et al. Global carbon dioxide emissions from inland waters. Nature 503, 355–359 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12760
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12760
This article is cited by
-
Subsidy-stress responses of ecosystem functions along experimental freshwater salinity gradients
Biogeochemistry (2024)
-
Characteristics and influencing factors of greenhouse gas emissions from reservoirs in the Yellow River Basin: A Meta-analysis
Science China Earth Sciences (2024)
-
Characteristics and influencing factors of CO2 emission from inland waters in China
Science China Earth Sciences (2024)
-
Dissolved greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, and N2O) emissions from highland lakes of the Andes cordillera in Northern Ecuador
Aquatic Sciences (2024)
-
Coastal vegetation and estuaries are collectively a greenhouse gas sink
Nature Climate Change (2023)
Arnaud Foulquier
A neglected source of CO2 outgassing from inland waters.
Datry T.<sup>1,*</sup>, Foulquier A.<sup>1</sup>, Tockner, K.<sup>2,3</sup>, and Dahm C.N.<sup>4</sup>
^1^Irstea, UR-MALY, Villeurbanne, France. ^2^IGB, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany. ^3^Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. ^4^Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. ^*^Corresponding author.
Growing evidence shows that inland waters release considerable amounts of CO~2~ into the atmosphere^1-3^. Raymond et al. (2013) recently estimated that, annually, streams and rivers release around 1.8 Pg C, representing 70% of the CO~2~ evasion rate from all inland waters^4^. Yet, this is most likely a conservative estimate, because one substantial source of CO~2~ evasion has not been considered. Dry periods in intermittent streams and rivers, those waterways that periodically cease to flow, have been excluded from these estimations based on the assumption they are not contributing to CO~2~ gas exchange. The prevalence (at least 50% of the global river network) and the ecological significance of intermittent waterways have been recently stressed with emphasis on the urgent need to better consider these waterways into basic and applied science perspectives^5,6^. In particular, owing to their ?pulsed? nature and widespread distribution, intermittent streams and rivers could release comparable amounts of CO~2~ annually as all lakes and reservoirs on Earth. Here, we consider the role of intermittent waterways in contributing to global CO~2~ evasion and identify research needs and challenges for advancing our understanding of how intermittent streams and rivers contribute to the global C cycle.
In their large-scale estimate of CO~2~ evasion from inland waters, Raymond et al. (2013) excluded a large proportion of stream and river networks (84 000 km^2^, corresponding to 11-17% of the total river network that they considered) based on the assumption that dry periods in intermittent rivers ?do not contribute to gas exchange?. Yet, intermittent streams and rivers are very prevalent on Earth, and they contribute to major ecological processes, including global nutrient and C cycles^5,6^. Their abundance also is increasing in all regions facing water scarcity and climate drying trends^5-7^. Biogeochemically, intermittent streams and rivers have typical ?pulsed? dynamics with ?boom? and ?bust? phases^8^. During the dry phases, large quantities of organic material accumulate in dry streams and river channels^6,9,10^. Photodegradation can set the stage for rapid rates of metabolism when flows return^11^. Upon flow resumption, the tons of accumulated organic materials are mobilized and transported through rewetting fronts with sometimes highly turbulent flows^9,10^. Strong and growing evidence shows that these first pulses are metabolically extremely active. For example, hypoxia, anoxia and pH sags have been seen up to hundreds of kilometers downstream after re-initiation of flows from intermittent channels and floodplains, indicating very strong metabolic activity^12^. In addition, the transient stimulation of microbial metabolism upon rewetting in streambed sediments can account for large CO~2~ pulses^13^. Quantifying these sources of CO~2~ into global CO~2~ evasion estimates is particularly difficult to do due to their highly transient nature. More generally, the effects of hydrological pulses occurring in inland waters, including intermittent rivers, wetlands, and floodplains, on CO~2~ evasion is still poorly explored^6^. However, assuming that these accentuated CO~2~ pulses compensate for low metabolic rates occurring during dry phases, intermittent streams and rivers could release around 0.3 Pg C yr^-1^ (See Methods). This estimate is comparable to the rate Raymond et al. (2013) obtained for lakes and reservoirs on Earth, and we propose that the large CO~2~ pulses occurring during transient phases may have even more dramatic influence on global evasion rates^14^. As highlighted by Raymond et al. (2013), the sources of inland water CO~2~ evasion are still not known with high certainty, and the role of intermittent rivers is particularly poorly understood. To advance our understanding of CO~2~ outgassing from these waterways, we call for mesocosm experiments utilizing dry streambed materials, flow manipulation experiments that rewet dried segments of streams and rivers^15^ , and field acquisition of data during first pulses (e.g., temperature, pH, DOC,alkalinity, and pCO~2~).
Methods
Excluding the contribution of intermittent streams and periods of ice cover, Raymond et al. estimates a global carbon dioxide evasion rate of 1.8 Pg C yr^-1^ from a stream and river surface area of 536,000 km^2^. Based on this CO~2~ evasion rate / surface area ratio and under the assumption that CO~2~ pulses upon rewetting resumption compensate for stream dry phases, intermittent stream surface area (84,000 km^2^ as estimated by Raymond et al.) contributes for 0.28 Pg C yr^-1^ in global CO~2~ evasion rates from intermittent streams and rivers.
References
* 1. Battin, T.J. et al. The boundless carbon cycle. Nat. Geosci. 2, 598-600 (2009).
* 2. Aufdenkampe, A.K. et al. Riverine coupling of biogeochemical cycles between land, oceans, and atmosphere. Front. Ecol. Environ. 9, 53-60. (2011).
* 3. Butman, D. & Raymond, P.A. Significant efflux of carbon dioxide from streams and rivers in the United States. Nature Geosci. 4, 839-842 (2011).
* 4. Raymond, P.A. et al. Global carbon dioxide emissions from inland waters. Nature 503, 355-359 (2013).
* 5. Acuña, V. et al. Why should we care about temporary waterways? Science 343, 1080-1081 (2014).
* 6. Datry, T., Larned S.T. & Tockner, K. Intermittent rivers: a challenge for freshwater ecology. BioScience. doi:10.1093/biosci/bit027 (2014).
* 7. Döll, P. & Schmied, H.M. How is the impact of climate change on river flow regimes related to the impact on mean annual runoff? A global-scale analysis. Environ. Res. Lett. 7, 14-37 (2012).
* 8. Bunn, S.E., Thoms, M.C., Hamilton, S.K., & Capon, S.J. Flow variability in dryland rivers: boom, bust and the bits in between. River. Res. Appl. 22, 179-186 (2006).
* 9. Jacobson, P.J., Jacobson, K.M., Angermeier, P.L. & Cherry, D.S. Variation in material transport and water chemistry along a large ephemeral river in the Namib Desert. Freshwater Biol. 44, 481-491 (2000).
* 10. Corti, R. & Datry, T. Invertebrates and sestonic matter in an advancing wetted front travelling down a dry riverbed (Albarine, France). Freshwater Sci. 31, 1187-1201 (2012).
* 11. Austin, A.T. & Vivanco, L. Plant litter decomposition in a semi-arid ecosystem controlled by photodegradation. Nature 442, 555-558 (2006).
* 12. Whitworth, K. L., Baldwin, D. S. & Kerr, J. L. Drought, floods and water quality: drivers of a severe hypoxic blackwater event in a major river system (the southern Murray?Darling Basin, Australia). J. Hydrol. 450, 190-198 (2012).
* 13. Placella, S.A., Brodie, E.L. & Firestone, M.K. Rainfall-induced carbon dioxide pulses result from sequential resuscitation of phylogenetically clustered microbial groups. P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109, 10931-10936 (2012).
* 14. Moatar, F., Meybeck, M., Raymond, S., Birgand, F., & Curie, F. River flux uncertainties predicted by hydrological variability and riverine material behaviour. Hydrol. Process. 27, 3535-3546 (2013).
* 15. Valett, H. et al. Biogeochemical and metabolic responses to the flood pulse in a semiarid floodplain. Ecology 86, 220-234 (2005).