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An expanded role for river networks

Estimates of stream and river area have relied on observations at coarse resolution. Consideration of the smallest and most dynamic streams could reveal a greater role for river networks in global biogeochemical cycling than previously thought.

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Figure 1: Drainage networks derived from different data sources.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (DEB-0918904 and DEB-0949774 to J.P.B. and DEB-0823293 to D.S.L. with the Coweeta Long-Term Ecological Research programme). We thank J. McDonald for cartographic assistance. An early version of this manuscript benefited from comments by W. Cross, A. Huryn and R. Sponseller.

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Correspondence to David S. Leigh.

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Benstead, J., Leigh, D. An expanded role for river networks. Nature Geosci 5, 678–679 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1593

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