Small freshwater reservoirs are ubiquitous and likely play an important role in global greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets relative to their limited water surface area. However, constraining annual GHG fluxes in small freshwater reservoirs is challenging given their footprint area and spatially and temporally variable emissions. To quantify the GHG budget of a small (0.1 km2) reservoir, we deployed an Eddy covariance (EC) system in a small reservoir located in southwestern Virginia, USA over 2 years to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes near‐continuously. Fluxes were coupled with in situ sensors measuring multiple environmental parameters. Over both years, we found the reservoir to be a large source of CO2(633–731 g CO2‐C m−2 yr−1) and CH4(1.02–1.29 g CH4‐C m−2 yr−1) to the atmosphere, with substantial sub‐daily, daily, weekly, and seasonal timescales of variability. For example, fluxes were substantially greater during the summer thermally stratified season as compared to the winter. In addition, we observed significantly greater GHG fluxes during winter intermittent ice‐on conditions as compared to continuous ice‐on conditions, suggesting GHG emissions from lakes and reservoirs may increase with predicted decreases in winter ice‐cover. Finally, we identified several key environmental variables that may be driving reservoir GHG fluxes at multiple timescales, including, surface water temperature and thermocline depth followed by fluorescent dissolved organic matter. Overall, our novel year‐round EC data from a small reservoir indicate that these freshwater ecosystems likely contribute a substantial amount of CO2and CH4to global GHG budgets, relative to their surface area.
Collectively, reservoirs constitute a significant global source of C‐based greenhouse gases (GHGs). Yet, global estimates of reservoir carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) 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 CO2and CH4fluxes, by specific flux pathway and in a spatially and temporally explicit manner, as a function of reservoir characteristics. We show: (a) CH4fluxes via degassing and ebullition are much larger than previously recognized and diffusive CH4fluxes are lower than previously estimated, while CO2emissions 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) CO2flux is the dominant emissions pathway in boreal regions and CH4degassing 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 CH4ebullition and degassing.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1639458
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10365578
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Global Biogeochemical Cycles
- Volume:
- 35
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 0886-6236
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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