Inland water greenhouse gas emissions offset the terrestrial carbon sink in the northern cryosphere.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 39331717.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.adp0024 and PMC identifier 11430465.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Climate-sensitive northern cryosphere inland waters emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere, yet their total emissions remain poorly constrained. We present a data-driven synthesis of GHG emissions from northern cryosphere inland waters considering water body types, cryosphere zones, and seasonality. We find that annual GHG emissions are dominated by carbon dioxide ([Formula: see text] teragrams of CO<sub>2</sub>; [Formula: see text]) and methane ([Formula: see text] teragrams of CH<sub>4</sub>), while the nitrous oxide emission ([Formula: see text] gigagrams of N<sub>2</sub>O) is minor. The annual CO<sub>2</sub>-equivalent (CO<sub>2</sub>e) GHG emissions from northern cryosphere inland waters total [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] petagrams of CO<sub>2</sub>e using the 100- or 20-year global warming potentials, respectively. Rivers emit 64% more CO<sub>2</sub>e GHGs than lakes, despite having only one-fifth of their surface area. The continuous permafrost zone contributed half of the inland water GHG emissions. Annual CO<sub>2</sub>e emissions from northern cryosphere inland waters exceed the region's terrestrial net ecosystem exchange, highlighting the important role of inland waters in the cryospheric land-aquatic continuum under a warming climate.