Terrestrial carbon inputs to inland waters: A current synthesis of estimates and uncertainty

Globally, inland waters receive a significant but ill‐defined quantity of terrestrial carbon (C). When summed, the contemporary estimates for the three possible fates of C in inland waters (storage, outgassing, and export) highlight that terrestrial landscapes may deliver upward of 5.1 Pg of C annua...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLimnology and oceanography letters Vol. 3; no. 3; pp. 132 - 142
Main Authors Drake, Travis W., Raymond, Peter A., Spencer, Robert G. M.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.06.2018
Wiley
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ISSN2378-2242
2378-2242
DOI10.1002/lol2.10055

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Summary:Globally, inland waters receive a significant but ill‐defined quantity of terrestrial carbon (C). When summed, the contemporary estimates for the three possible fates of C in inland waters (storage, outgassing, and export) highlight that terrestrial landscapes may deliver upward of 5.1 Pg of C annually. This review of flux estimates over the last decade has revealed an average increase of ∼ 0.3 Pg C yr−1, indicating a historical underestimation of the amount of terrestrial‐C exported to inland waters. The continual increase in the estimates also underscores large data gaps and uncertainty. As research continues to refine these aquatic fluxes, especially C outgassed from the humid tropics and other understudied regions, we expect the global estimate of terrestrial‐C transferred to inland waters to rise. An important implication of this upward refinement is that terrestrial net ecosystem production may be overestimated with ramifications for modeling of the global C cycle.
Bibliography:Edited by: Emily Stanley and Paul del Giorgio
Data Availability Statement
TWD and RGMS conceived the manuscript. TWD generated new estimates and wrote the manuscript with significant contributions from PAR and RGMS.
This article is part of the Special Issue: Carbon cycling in inland waters
Author Contribution Statement
All data in the manuscript can be found in cited publications and in Table
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ISSN:2378-2242
2378-2242
DOI:10.1002/lol2.10055