skip to main content

Title: Carbon Dioxide Concentrations and Efflux from Permanent, Semi-Permanent, and Temporary Subalpine Ponds
Small ponds account for a disproportionately high percentage of carbon dioxide emissions relative to their small surface area. It is therefore crucial to understand carbon flow in these ponds to refine the current global carbon budget, especially because climate change is affecting pond hydrology. High elevation ponds in the Elk Mountains of western Colorado are drying more frequently as the timing of snowmelt advances. We compared CO2 concentrations and fluxes among ponds of different hydroperiods over diel sampling periods during the course of the 2017 open-water period. CO2 concentrations were significantly negatively correlated with pond depth and averaged 77.6 ± 24.5 μmol L−1 (mean ± S.E.) across all ponds and sampling events. Ponds were up to twenty times supersaturated in CO2 with respect to the atmosphere. Flux was highly variable within individual ponds but correlated with time of sampling and was highest at night. Flux averaged 19.7 ± 18.8 mg CO2 m−2 h−1 across all ponds and sampling events. We also compared flux values obtained using modeled and empirical methods and found that widely-applied models of gas exchange rates using wind-based gas exchange (K) values yielded estimates of CO2 flux that were significantly higher than those obtained using the floating chamber approach, but estimates of CO2 more » flux using globally averaged convection-based K values were lower than those obtained using the floating chambers. Lastly, we integrated soil vs. water efflux measurements with long-term patterns in hydrology to predict how total season-long efflux might change under the more rapid drying regimes and longer seasons that are already occurring in these systems. Because soil CO2 efflux averaged 277.0 ± 49.0 mg CO2 m−2 h−1, temporary ponds emitted 674.1 ± 99.4 kg CO2 m−2 over the course of the 2017 season from ice-out to refreezing, which was over twice as much as permanent and semi-permanent ponds. Our results emphasize that contributions of CO2 from small ponds to the global carbon budget estimates will vary with pond hydroperiod and sampling methodology, which have been overlooked given that most previous estimates were collected from limited sampling periods and from pond waters alone. Furthermore, pond CO2 contributions are predicted to increase over time as pond areas transition from efflux from water to efflux from soil. « less
Authors:
; ; ; ; ;
Award ID(s):
1556914
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10091160
Journal Name:
Wetlands
ISSN:
0277-5212
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract
    Site description. This data package consists of data obtained from sampling surface soil (the 0-7.6 cm depth profile) in black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) dominated forest and black needlerush (Juncus roemerianus) saltmarsh along the Gulf of Mexico coastline in peninsular west-central Florida, USA. This location has a subtropical climate with mean daily temperatures ranging from 15.4 °C in January to 27.8 °C in August, and annual precipitation of 1336 mm. Precipitation falls as rain primarily between June and September. Tides are semi-diurnal, with 0.57 m median amplitudes during the year preceding sampling (U.S. NOAA National Ocean Service, Clearwater Beach, Florida, station 8726724). Sea-level rise is 4.0 ± 0.6 mm per year (1973-2020 trend, mean ± 95 % confidence interval, NOAA NOS Clearwater Beach station). The A. germinans mangrove zone is either adjacent to water or fringed on the seaward side by a narrow band of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle). A near-monoculture of J. roemerianus is often adjacent to and immediately landward of the A. germinans zone. The transition from the mangrove to the J. roemerianus zone is variable in our study area. An abrupt edge between closed-canopy mangrove and J. roemerianus monoculture may extend for up to several hundred metersMore>>
  2. Abstract
    Excessive phosphorus (P) applications to croplands can contribute to eutrophication of surface waters through surface runoff and subsurface (leaching) losses. We analyzed leaching losses of total dissolved P (TDP) from no-till corn, hybrid poplar (Populus nigra X P. maximowiczii), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), miscanthus (Miscanthus giganteus), native grasses, and restored prairie, all planted in 2008 on former cropland in Michigan, USA. All crops except corn (13 kg P ha−1 year−1) were grown without P fertilization. Biomass was harvested at the end of each growing season except for poplar. Soil water at 1.2 m depth was sampled weekly to biweekly for TDP determination during March–November 2009–2016 using tension lysimeters. Soil test P (0–25 cm depth) was measured every autumn. Soil water TDP concentrations were usually below levels where eutrophication of surface waters is frequently observed (> 0.02 mg L−1) but often higher than in deep groundwater or nearby streams and lakes. Rates of P leaching, estimated from measured concentrations and modeled drainage, did not differ statistically among cropping systems across years; 7-year cropping system means ranged from 0.035 to 0.072 kg P ha−1 year−1 with large interannual variation. Leached P was positively related to STP, which decreased over the 7 years in all systems. These results indicate that both P-fertilized and unfertilized cropping systems mayMore>>
  3. Lakes and reservoirs contribute to regional carbon budgets via significant emissions of climate forcing trace gases. Here, for improved modelling, we use 8 years of floating chamber measurements from three small, shallow subarctic lakes (2010–2017, n = 1306) to separate the contribution of physical and biogeochemical processes to the turbulence-driven, diffusion-limited flux of methane (CH4) on daily to multi-year timescales. Correlative data include 9 years of surface water concentration measurements (2009–2017, n = 606), total water column storage (2009–2017, n = 1593) and in situ meteorological observations. We used the latter to compute near surface turbulence based on similarity scaling and then applied the surface renewal model to compute gas transfer velocities. Chamber fluxes averaged 6.9 ± 0.3 mg CH4 m−2 d−1 and gas transfer velocities (k600) averaged 4.0 ± 0.1 cm h−1. Chamber derived gas transfer velocities tracked the power-law wind speed relation of the model. Coefficients for the model and dissipation rates depended on shear production of turbulence, atmospheric stability, and exposure to wind. Fluxes increased with wind speed until daily average values exceeded 6.5 m s−1, at which point emissions were suppressed due to rapid water column degassing reducing the water–air concentration gradient. Arrhenius-type temperature functions ofmore »the CH4 flux (Ea‘ = 0.90 ± 0.14 eV) were robust (R2 ≥ 0.93, p < 0.01) and also applied to the surface CH4 concentration (Ea‘ = 0.88 ± 0.09 eV). These results imply that emissions were strongly coupled to production and supply to the water column. Spectral analysis indicated that on timescales shorter than a month, emissions were driven by wind shear whereas on longer timescales variations in water temperature governed the flux. Long-term monitoring efforts are essential to identify distinct functional relations that govern flux variability on timescales of weather and climate change.« less
  4. Accelerated warming in the Arctic has led to concern regarding the amount of carbon emission potential from Arctic water bodies. Yet, aquatic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) flux measurements remain scarce, particularly at high resolution and over long periods of time. Effluxes of methane (CH 4 ) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from Toolik Lake, a deep glacial lake in northern Alaska, were measured for the first time with the direct eddy covariance (EC) flux technique during six ice-free lake periods (2010–2015). CO 2 flux estimates from the lake (daily average efflux of 16.7 ± 5.3 mmol m −2 d −1 ) were in good agreement with earlier estimates from 1975–1989 using different methods. CH 4 effluxes in 2010–2015 (averaging 0.13 ± 0.06 mmol m −2 d −1 ) showed an interannual variation that was 4.1 times greater than median diel variations, but mean fluxes were almost one order of magnitude lower than earlier estimates obtained from single water samples in 1990 and 2011–2012. The overall global warming potential (GWP) of Toolik Lake is thus governed mostly by CO 2 effluxes, contributing 86–93% of the ice-free period GWP of 26–90 g CO 2,eq mmore »−2 . Diel variation in fluxes was also important, with up to a 2-fold (CH 4 ) to 4-fold (CO 2 ) difference between the highest nighttime and lowest daytime effluxes. Within the summer ice-free period, on average, CH 4 fluxes increased 2-fold during the first half of the summer, then remained almost constant, whereas CO 2 effluxes remained almost constant over the entire summer, ending with a linear increase during the last 1–2 weeks of measurements. Due to the cold bottom temperatures of this 26 m deep lake, and the absence of ebullition and episodic flux events, Toolik Lake and other deep glacial lakes are likely not hot spots for greenhouse gas emissions, but they still contribute to the overall GWP of the Arctic.« less
  5. Extensive floodplains and numerous lakes in the Amazon basin are well suited to examine the role of floodable lands within the context of the sources and processing of carbon within inland waters. We measured diel, seasonal and inter-annual variations of carbon dioxide concentrations and related environmental variables in open water and flooded vegetation and estimated the extension of these habitats using remote sensing in a representative central Amazon floodplain lake, Lake Janauacá. Depth-averaged values of CO2 in the open water of the lake, 157± 91 µM (mean ± SD), were less than those in an embayment near aquatic vegetation, 285±116 µM, and were variable over 24-h periods at both sites. Within floating herbaceous plant mats, mean concentration (without one outlier) was 275±77 µM and in flooded forests mean concentration was 217±78 µM. Variability in CO2 concentrations in open water resulted from changes in the extent of inundation and exchange with vegetated habitats. The best statistical model, including CO2 in aquatic plant mats, Secchi depth, rate of change in water level and chlorophyll concentrations, explained around 90% of the variability in CO2 concentration. Three-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling demonstrated that diel differences in water temperature between plant mats and open water and basin-scalemore »motions caused lateral exchanges of CO2 linking vegetated habitats to open water. Our findings extend understanding of CO2 in tropical lakes and floodplains with measurements and models that emphasize the importance of flooded forests and aquatic herbaceous plants fringing floodplain lakes as sources of carbon dioxide to the open waters.« less