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Substantial inorganic carbon sink in closed drainage basins globally

Nature Geoscience volume 10, pages 501–506 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Arid and semi-arid ecosystems are increasingly recognized as important carbon storage sites. In these regions, extensive sequestration of dissolved inorganic carbon can occur in the terminal lakes of endorheic basins—basins that do not drain to external bodies of water. However, the global magnitude of this dissolved inorganic carbon sink is uncertain. Here we present isotopic, radiocarbon, and chemical analyses of groundwater, river water, and sediments from the terminal region of the endorheic Shiyang River drainage basin, in arid northwest China. We estimate that 0.13 Pg of dissolved inorganic carbon was stored in the basin during the mid-Holocene. Pollen-based reconstructions of basin-scale productivity suggest that the mid-Holocene dissolved inorganic carbon sink was two orders of magnitude smaller than terrestrial productivity in the basin. We use estimates of dissolved inorganic carbon storage based on sedimentary data from 11 terminal lakes of endorheic basins around the world as the basis for a global extrapolation of the sequestration of dissolved organic carbon in endorheic basins. We estimate that 0.152 Pg of dissolved inorganic carbon is buried per year today, compared to about 0.211 Pg C yr−1 during the mid-Holocene. We conclude that endorheic basins represent an important carbon sink on the global scale, with a magnitude similar to deep ocean carbon burial.

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Figure 1: Global map of endorheic basins and arid land (left), and elevation map of the Shiyang River drainage basin (right).
Figure 2: The radiocarbon/OSL dating results, lithology and locations of the Holocene sections.
Figure 3: DIC content and NEP of the Shiyang River drainage basin.
Figure 4: Global locations of the 60 endorheic basins.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41571178, 41371009 and 41530745) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. lzujbky-2015-143).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Center for Hydrologic Cycle and Water Resources in Arid Region, Lanzhou University, 730000, Lanzhou, China

    Yu Li, Chengqi Zhang, Naiang Wang, Qin Han, Xinzhong Zhang, Yuan Liu, Lingmei Xu & Wangting Ye

  2. Key Laboratory of Ecohydrology of Inland River Basin/Gansu Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering Research Center, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Chengqi Zhang

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Contributions

Y.L. designed the project and this study; C.Z. performed the analyses; C.Z. and Y.L. wrote the manuscript; N.W., Y.L. and C.Z. completed the field work; N.W., Q.H., X.Z., Y.L., L.X. and W.Y. discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yu Li.

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Li, Y., Zhang, C., Wang, N. et al. Substantial inorganic carbon sink in closed drainage basins globally. Nature Geosci 10, 501–506 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2972

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