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Year‐2020 Global Distribution and Pathways of Reservoir Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emissions According to the Greenhouse Gas From Reservoirs (G‐res) Model
Author(s) -
Harrison John A.,
Prairie Yves T.,
MercierBlais Sara,
Soued Cynthia
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
global biogeochemical cycles
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.512
H-Index - 187
eISSN - 1944-9224
pISSN - 0886-6236
DOI - 10.1029/2020gb006888
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , environmental science , carbon dioxide , flux (metallurgy) , methane , atmospheric sciences , global warming , subtropics , carbon cycle , climate change , climatology , ecosystem , oceanography , geology , chemistry , ecology , organic chemistry , biology
Collectively, reservoirs constitute a significant global source of C‐based greenhouse gases (GHGs). Yet, global estimates of reservoir carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) emissions remain uncertain, varying more than four‐fold in recent analyses. Here we present results from a global application of the Greenhouse Gas from Reservoirs (G‐res) model wherein we estimate per‐area and per‐reservoir CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes, by specific flux pathway and in a spatially and temporally explicit manner, as a function of reservoir characteristics. We show: (a) CH 4 fluxes via degassing and ebullition are much larger than previously recognized and diffusive CH 4 fluxes are lower than previously estimated, while CO 2 emissions are similar to those reported in past work; (b) per‐area reservoir GHG fluxes are >29% higher than suggested by previous studies, due in large part to our novel inclusion of the degassing flux in our global estimate; (c) CO 2 flux is the dominant emissions pathway in boreal regions and CH 4 degassing and ebullition are dominant in tropical and subtropical regions, with the highest overall reservoir GHG fluxes in the tropics and subtropics; and (d) reservoir GHG fluxes are quite sensitive to input parameters that are both poorly constrained and likely to be strongly influenced by climate change in coming decades (parameters such as temperature and littoral area, where the latter may be expanded by deepening thermoclines expected to accompany warming surface waters). Together these results highlight a critical need to both better understand climate‐related drivers of GHG emission and to better quantify GHG emissions via CH 4 ebullition and degassing.