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Impact of warming on CO2 emissions from streams countered by aquatic photosynthesis

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 758–761 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Streams and rivers are an important source of CO2 emissions1. One important control of these emissions is the metabolic balance between photosynthesis, which converts CO2 to organic carbon, and respiration, which converts organic carbon into CO2 (refs 2,3). Carbon emissions from rivers could increase with warming, independently of organic carbon inputs, because the apparent activation energy is predicted to be higher for respiration than photosynthesis4,5. However, physiological CO2-concentrating mechanisms may prevent the increase in photorespiration, limiting photosynthesis with warming6. Here we report the thermal response of aquatic photosynthesis from streams located in geothermal areas of North America, Iceland and Kamchatka with water temperatures ranging between 4 and 70 °C. Based on a thermodynamic theory of enzyme kinetics, we show that the apparent activation energy of aquatic ecosystem photosynthesis is approximately 0.57 electron volts (eV) for temperatures ranging from 4 to 45 °C, which is similar to that of respiration4,5,7,8,9. This result and a global synthesis of 222 streams suggest that warming will not create increased stream and river CO2 emissions from a warming-induced imbalance between photosynthesis and respiration. However, temperature could affect annual CO2 emissions from streams if ecosystem respiration is independent of gross primary production, and may be amplified by increasing organic carbon supply.

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Figure 1: Thermal response of aquatic ecosystem photosynthesis (GPP) from groundwater-fed streams draining geothermal areas of the Northern Hemisphere.
Figure 2: Thermal response of photosynthesis in four Icelandic geothermal areas (39 sites in total).
Figure 3: Global synthesis of stream ecosystem metabolism at 222 sites, with discharge 0.5 to 5,120 l s−1 during summer time.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the park rangers for permission to work in Iceland and Kamchatka; B. Marteau, R. Magnúsdóttir, D. Árnadóttir, Yu. Bespalaya, O. Usacheva, A. Kondakov and I. Bolotov for help with fieldwork; and Y. Cook, H. Watson, L. Johnson, S. McIntyre for processing water chemical analyses. B.O.L.D. and T.E.F. were funded by the Scottish Government Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services (RESAS). J.S.Ó., G.M.G. and B.O.L.D. were funded by the Icelandic National Power Company’s Energy and Environmental Fund. J.R.M. was funded by Stockton University. N.F. and the travel to Kamchatka were partly funded by AU IDEAS. J.M.H. was supported by the Icelandic Research Fund (i. Rannsóknasjóður) 141840-051 during manuscript preparation. J.J.D.T. was funded by NERC grant NE/J011967/1. Comments by S. Maberly and J. Kemp improved the manuscript.

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Author notes

  1. James M. Hood & Joshua J. D. Thompson

    Present address: Present addresses: Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, Aquatic Ecology Laboratory, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43212, USA (J.M.H.); Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, PO Box 28, Edgewater, Maryland 21037, USA (J.J.D.T.).,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK

    Benoît O. L. Demars & Thomas E. Freitag

  2. University of Iceland, Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences, Sturlugata 7, 101 Reykjavik, Iceland

    Gísli M. Gíslason

  3. Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, Árleyni 22, 112 Reykjavik, Iceland

    Jón S. Ólafsson

  4. Stockton University, Applied Physics, Galloway, New Jersey 08205, USA

    J. Russell Manson

  5. Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Gaustaallen 21, 0349 Oslo, Norway

    Nikolai Friberg

  6. water@leeds, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

    Nikolai Friberg

  7. Department of Ecology, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana 59717, USA

    James M. Hood

  8. Bangor University, School of Environment, Natural Resources & Geography, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK

    Joshua J. D. Thompson

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Contributions

B.O.L.D., G.M.G., J.S.Ó., J.R.M. and N.F. designed the field study. B.O.L.D. analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. B.O.L.D. and J.J.D.T. assembled the global synthesis and provided additional unpublished data. All authors contributed to at least one field expedition and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Benoît O. L. Demars.

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Demars, B., Gíslason, G., Ólafsson, J. et al. Impact of warming on CO2 emissions from streams countered by aquatic photosynthesis. Nature Geosci 9, 758–761 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2807

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