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High CO 2 emissions from the tropical Godavari estuary (India) associated with monsoon river discharges
Author(s) -
Sarma V. V. S. S.,
Kumar N. A.,
Prasad V. R.,
Venkataramana V.,
Appalanaidu S.,
Sridevi B.,
Kumar B. S. K.,
Bharati M. D.,
Subbaiah C. V.,
Acharyya T.,
Rao G. D.,
Viswanadham R.,
Gawade L.,
Manjary D. T.,
Kumar P. P.,
Rajeev K.,
Reddy N. P. C.,
Sarma V. V.,
Kumar M. D.,
Sadhuram Y.,
Murty T. V. R.
Publication year - 2011
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 - 10.1029/2011gl046928
Subject(s) - estuary , monsoon , environmental science , oceanography , tropics , carbon sink , hydrology (agriculture) , geology , ecology , climate change , biology , geotechnical engineering
Estuaries have been under sampled to establish them as sources or sinks of the atmospheric carbon dioxide. Such poor coverage is well known for tropical, particularly monsoon driven, estuaries. In an attempt to study the variability in CO 2 in a tropical monsoon estuary we made systematic time‐series observations in the Gautami Godavari estuarine system in the east coast of India. Our 18 month‐long extensive monitoring in the tropical Godavari estuarine system revealed pH >7.8 during dry period that decreased by 1.5 ± 0.01 during peak discharge period. The decrease in pH was associated with high nutrients and bacterial activities suggesting significant organic carbon decomposition. High bacterial respiration (20.6 ± 7.2 μ MC l −1 d −1 ) in the estuary resulted in very high pCO 2 of ∼30,000 μ atm during peak discharge period, which otherwise were <500 μ atm during dry period. Such high pCO 2 levels were unknown to occur in any aquatic region. Several major and minor estuaries flow into the northern Indian Ocean from the Indian subcontinent and the monsoon associated processes make these systems chimney for emitting CO 2 to atmosphere unrealized hitherto.