Open AccessThe importance of hydrology in routing terrestrial carbon to the atmosphere via global streams and rivers
Author(s) -
Shaoda Liu,
Charles Kuhn,
Giuseppe Amatulli,
K. S. Aho,
David Butman,
George H. Allen,
Peirong Lin,
Ming Pan,
Dai Yamazaki,
Craig Brinkerhoff,
C. J. Gleason,
Xinghui Xia,
Peter A. Raymond
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
proceedings of the national academy of sciences of the united states of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.011
H-Index - 771
eISSN - 1091-6490
pISSN - 0027-8424
DOI - 10.1073/pnas.2106322119
Subject(s) - fluvial , environmental science , streams , hydrology (agriculture) , carbon cycle , carbon dioxide , atmosphere (unit) , routing (electronic design automation) , carbon fibers , terrestrial ecosystem , atmospheric sciences , ecology , geology , ecosystem , geography , geomorphology , meteorology , structural basin , computer network , materials science , geotechnical engineering , computer science , composite number , composite material , biology
Significance Stream/river carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emission has significant spatial and seasonal variations critical for understanding its macroecosystem controls and plumbing of the terrestrial carbon budget. We relied on direct fluvial CO2 partial pressure measurements and seasonally varying gas transfer velocity and river network surface area estimates to resolve reach-level seasonal variations of the flux at the global scale. The percentage of terrestrial primary production (GPP) shunted into rivers that ultimately contributes to CO2 evasion increases with discharge across regions, due to a stronger response in fluvial CO2 evasion to discharge than GPP. This highlights the importance of hydrology, in particular water throughput, in terrestrial–fluvial carbon transfers and the need to account for this effect in plumbing the terrestrial carbon budget.