Global carbon dioxide emissions from inland waters

Peter A. Raymond (), Jens Hartmann, Ronny Lauerwald, Sebastian Sobek, Cory McDonald, Mark Hoover, David Butman, Robert Striegl, Emilio Mayorga, Christoph Humborg, Pirkko Kortelainen, Hans Dürr, Michel Meybeck, Philippe Ciais and Peter Guth
Additional contact information
Peter A. Raymond: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 195 Prospect Street
Jens Hartmann: Institute for Geology, KlimaCampus, Universität Hamburg, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
Ronny Lauerwald: Institute for Geology, KlimaCampus, Universität Hamburg, D-20146 Hamburg, Germany
Sebastian Sobek: Limnology, Uppsala University, SE-75236 Uppsala, Sweden
Cory McDonald: Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Mark Hoover: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 195 Prospect Street
David Butman: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 195 Prospect Street
Robert Striegl: US Geological Survey, National Research Program
Emilio Mayorga: Applied Physics Lab, University of Washington
Christoph Humborg: Stockholm University, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Pirkko Kortelainen: Finnish Environment Institute, PO Box 140, FI-00251 Helsinki, Finland
Hans Dürr: University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Michel Meybeck: Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), Unité Mixte de Recherche CNRS-UPMC Sisyphe, F-75252 Paris 05, France
Philippe Ciais: LSCE IPSL, UMR8212, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Peter Guth: US Naval Academy, 572C Holloway Road, Annapolis, Maryland 21402, USA

Nature, 2013, vol. 503, issue 7476, 355-359

Abstract: Abstract Carbon dioxide (CO2) transfer from inland waters to the atmosphere, known as CO2 evasion, is a component of the global carbon cycle. Global estimates of CO2 evasion have been hampered, however, by the lack of a framework for estimating the inland water surface area and gas transfer velocity and by the absence of a global CO2 database. Here we report regional variations in global inland water surface area, dissolved CO2 and gas transfer velocity. We obtain global CO2 evasion rates of 1.8 petagrams of carbon (Pg C) per year from streams and rivers and 0.32 Pg C yr−1 from lakes and reservoirs, where the upper and lower limits are respectively the 5th and 95th confidence interval percentiles. The resulting global evasion rate of 2.1 Pg C yr−1 is higher than previous estimates owing to a larger stream and river evasion rate. Our analysis predicts global hotspots in stream and river evasion, with about 70 per cent of the flux occurring over just 20 per cent of the land surface. The source of inland water CO2 is still not known with certainty and new studies are needed to research the mechanisms controlling CO2 evasion globally.

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/nature12760

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