Premium
Nitrous oxide emissions from tropical hydroelectric reservoirs
Author(s) -
Guérin Frédéric,
Abril Gwenaël,
Tremblay Alain,
Delmas Robert
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2007gl033057
Subject(s) - environmental science , nitrous oxide , tropical rainforest , hydrology (agriculture) , greenhouse gas , hydroelectricity , tropical climate , tropics , flooding (psychology) , ecosystem , atmospheric sciences , rainforest , oceanography , ecology , geology , geotechnical engineering , biology , psychology , psychotherapist
We report original data on nitrous oxide (N 2 O) fluxes from two tropical reservoirs, their rivers below the dam, and from natural aquatic ecosystems and rainforest soils in French Guiana and Panama. We also review published N 2 O fluxes from other tropical reservoirs and natural environments. We show that: (1) N 2 O emissions from tropical reservoirs occur mainly at the reservoir surface, fluxes downstream of dams being minor; (2) Because pre‐flooding natural N 2 O fluxes are significant, the net N 2 O emissions from reservoirs are less than ∼50–70% of gross N 2 O emissions; (3) the contribution of N 2 O to the global warming potential of emissions from reservoirs could be significant for gross emissions, but less than 10% for net emissions, disregarding N 2 O degassing emissions.