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Integrating carbon emissions from lakes and streams in a subarctic catchment
Author(s) -
Lundin Erik J.,
Giesler Reiner,
Persson Andreas,
Thompson Megan S.,
Karlsson Jan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: biogeosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8961
pISSN - 2169-8953
DOI - 10.1002/jgrg.20092
Subject(s) - streams , environmental science , subarctic climate , drainage basin , hydrology (agriculture) , atmosphere (unit) , aquatic ecosystem , carbon fibers , ecology , environmental chemistry , geography , geology , chemistry , computer network , cartography , geotechnical engineering , meteorology , computer science , materials science , composite number , composite material , biology
Northern inland waters emit CO 2 and CH 4 to the atmosphere but the importance of these emissions is poorly understood due to a lack of integrated catchment‐scale estimates of carbon (C) emissions from lakes and streams. In this study we quantified the annual emission of CO 2 and CH 4 from 27 lakes and 23 stream segments in a 15 km 2 subarctic catchment in northern Sweden. All lakes and streams were net sources of C to the atmosphere on an annual basis. Streams dominated (96%) the aquatic CO 2 emission while lakes (61%) dominated the aquatic CH 4 emission. Total aquatic C emission from the catchment was estimated to be 9.1 g C m −2 yr −1 (98% as CO 2 ). Although streams only accounted for 4% of the aquatic area in the catchment, they accounted for 95% of the total emission. The C emissions from lakes and streams were considerably larger than previously reported downstream waterborne export of C from the catchment, indicating that the atmospheric losses of C in the aquatic systems are an important component in the catchment C balance.