Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Organic carbon decomposition rates controlled by water retention time across inland waters

This article has been updated

Abstract

The loss of organic carbon during passage through the continuum of inland waters from soils to the sea is a critical component of the global carbon cycle1,2,3. Yet, the amount of organic carbon mineralized and released to the atmosphere during its transport remains an open question2,4,5,6, hampered by the absence of a common predictor of organic carbon decay rates1,7. Here we analyse a compilation of existing field and laboratory measurements of organic carbon decay rates and water residence times across a wide range of aquatic ecosystems and climates. We find a negative relationship between the rate of organic carbon decay and water retention time across systems, entailing a decrease in organic carbon reactivity along the continuum of inland waters. We find that the half-life of organic carbon is short in inland waters (2.5 ± 4.7 yr) compared to terrestrial soils and marine ecosystems, highlighting that freshwaters are hotspots of organic carbon degradation. Finally, we evaluate the response of organic carbon decay rates to projected changes in runoff8. We calculate that regions projected to become drier or wetter as the global climate warms will experience changes in organic carbon decay rates of up to about 10%, which illustrates the influence of hydrological variability on the inland waters carbon cycle.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Regression between the log-transformed water retention time (WRT) and decay rates of organic carbon (OC).
Figure 2: Comparison of the relationship for inland waters and marine sediments.
Figure 3: Half-lives of organic carbon in different systems.
Figure 4: Global distribution of percentage variation in OC decay rates based on the runoff changes scenario for a 2 °C increase in temperature.

Change history

  • 02 June 2016

    In the version of the Letter originally published, in the 'Predicted distribution changes in WRT and k' section of the Methods, the equation describing 'R' was incorrect and the numerator should have been 'DW'. This has been corrected in all versions of the Letter.

References

  1. Cole, J. J. et al. Plumbing the global carbon cycle: integrating inland waters into the terrestrial carbon budget. Ecosystems 10, 171–184 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Battin, T. J. et al. The boundless carbon cycle. Nature Geosci. 2, 598–600 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Tranvik, L. J. et al. Lakes and reservoirs as regulators of carbon cycling and climate. Limnol. Oceanogr. 54, 2298–2314 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Raymond, P. A. et al. Global carbon dioxide emissions from inland waters. Nature 503, 355–359 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Aufdenkampe, A. K. et al. Riverine coupling of biogeochemical cycles between land, oceans, and atmosphere. Front. Ecol. Environ. 9, 53–60 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lauerwald, R., Laruelle, G. G., Hartmann, J., Ciais, P. & Regnier, P. A. G. Spatial patterns in CO2 evasion from the global river network. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 29, 534–554 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Sobek, S., Tranvik, L. J., Prairie, Y. T., Kortelainen, P. & Cole, J. J. Patterns and regulation of dissolved organic carbon: an analysis of 7,500 widely distributed lakes. Limnol. Oceanogr. 52, 1208–1219 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Schewe, J. et al. Multimodel assessment of water scarcity under climate change. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 3245–3250 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Bastviken, D. et al. Freshwater methane emissions offset the continental carbon sink. Science 331, 50 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Ciais, P. et al. in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis (eds Stocker, T. F. et al.) 465–570 (IPCC, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013).

    Google Scholar 

  11. Vähätalo, A. V., Aarnos, H. & Mäntyniemi, S. Biodegradability continuum and biodegradation kinetics of natural organic matter described by the beta distribution. Biogeochemistry 100, 227–240 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Koehler, B., Von Wachenfeldt, E., Kothawala, D. N. & Tranvik, L. J. Reactivity continuum of dissolved organic carbon decomposition in lake water. J. Geophys. Res. 117, G01024 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Arndt, S. et al. Quantifying the degradation of organic matter in marine sediments: a review and synthesis. Earth Sci. Rev. 123, 53–86 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Middelburg, J. J. A simple rate model for organic matter decomposition in marine sediments. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 53, 1577–1581 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Boudreau, B. P., Arnosti, C., Jørgensen, B. B. & Canfield, D. E. Comment on ‘Physical model for the decay and preservation of marine organic carbon’. Science 319, 1616 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Hansell, D. A. Recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon fractions. Ann. Rev. Mar. Sci. 5, 421–445 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Middelburg, J. J. & Meysman, F. J. R. Burial at sea. Science 316, 1294–1295 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Schindler, D. W. et al. Natural and man-caused factors affecting the abundance and cycling of dissolved organic substances in precambrian shield lakes. Hydrobiologia 229, 1–21 (1992).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Weyhenmeyer, G. A. et al. Selective decay of terrestrial organic carbon during transport from land to sea. Glob. Change Biol. 18, 349–355 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hanson, P. C. et al. Fate of allochthonous dissolved organic carbon in lakes: a quantitative approach. PLoS ONE 6, e21884 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Algesten, G. et al. Role of lakes for organic carbon cycling in the boreal zone. Glob. Change Biol. 10, 141–147 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Curtis, P. J. & Schindler, D. W. Hydrologic control of dissolved organic matter in low-order Precambrian Shield lakes. Biogeochemistry 36, 125–138 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Westrich, J. T. & Berner, R. A. The role of sedimentary organic matter in bacterial sulfate reduction: the G model tested. Limnol. Oceanogr. 29, 236–249 (1984).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Canfield, D. E. Factors influencing organic carbon preservation in marine sediments. Chem. Geol. 114, 315–329 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Boudreau, B. P. & Ruddick, B. R. On a reactive continuum representation of organic matter diagenesis. Am. J. Sci. 291, 507–538 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Kottek, M., Grieser, J., Beck, C., Rudolf, B. & Rubel, F. World map of Köppen–Geiger climate classification main climates (A4). Meteorol. Z. 15, 259–263 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kellerman, A. M., Dittmar, T., Kothawala, D. N. & Tranvik, L. J. Chemodiversity of dissolved organic matter in lakes driven by climate and hydrology. Nature Commun. 5, 3804 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Vannote, R. L., Minshall, G. W., Cummins, K. W., Sedell, J. R. & Cushing, C. E. The river continuum concept. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 37, 130–137 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. del Giorgio, P. A. & Davis, J. in Aquatic Ecosystems: Interactivity of Dissolved Organic Matter (eds Findlay, S. E. G. & Sinsabaugh, R. L.) 400–420 (Elsevier Science, 2003).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Carvalhais, N. et al. Global covariation of carbon turnover times with climate in terrestrial ecosystems. Nature 514, 213–217 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. New, M., Hulme, M. & Jones, P. Representing twentieth-century space—time climate variability. Part I: Development of a 1961–90 mean monthly terrestrial climatology. J. Clim. 12, 829–856 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. New, M., Hulme, M. & Jones, P. Representing twentieth-century space-time climate variability. Part II: Development of 1901–96 monthly grids of terrestrial surface climate. J. Clim. 13, 2217–2238 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. QGIS Development Team. QGIS Geographic Information System (Open Source Geospatial Foundation Project, 2015).

  34. Morrill, J., Bales, R. & Conklin, M. Estimating stream temperature from air temperature: implications for future water quality. J. Environ. Eng. 131, 139–146 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Monsen, N. E., Cloern, J. E., Lucas, L. V. & Monismith, S. G. The use of flushing time, residence time, and age as transport time scales. Limnol. Oceanogr. 47, 1545–1553 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Müller, R. A. et al. Water renewal along the aquatic continuum offsets cumulative retention by lakes: implications for the character of organic carbon in boreal lakes. Aquat. Sci. 75, 535–545 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Brock, T. D. The ecosystem and the steady state. Bioscience 17, 166–169 (1967).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, 2015); http://www.R-project.org

  39. Wu, H. et al. A new global river network database for macroscale hydrologic modeling. Wat. Resour. Res. 48, W09701 (2012).

    Google Scholar 

  40. Lehner, B., Verdin, K. & Jarvis, A. New global hydrography derived from spaceborne elevation data. Eos 89, 93–94 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Fekete, B. M. & Vörösmarty, C. J. High-resolution fields of global runoff combining observed river discharge and simulated water balances. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 16, 15-1–15-10 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Marcé, R. et al. Carbonate weathering as a driver of CO2 supersaturation in lakes. Nature Geosci. 8, 107–111 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Schulze, K., Hunger, M. & Döll, P. Advances in geosciences simulating river flow velocity on global scale. Adv. Geosci. 5, 133–136 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Moody, J. A. & Troutman, B. M. Characterization of the spatial variability of channel morphology. Earth Surf. Process. Landf. 27, 1251–1266 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Lehner, B. et al. High-resolution mapping of the world’s reservoirs and dams for sustainable river-flow management. Front. Ecol. Environ. 9, 494–502 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Lehner, B. & Döll, P. Development ans validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands. J. Hydrol. 296, 1–22 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Lewis, W. M. Global primary production of lakes: 19th Baldi Memorial Lecture. Inl. Waters 1, 1–28 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Meybeck, M. in Physics and Chemistry of Lakes (eds Lerman, A., Imboden, D. & Gat, J.) 1–35 (Springer, 1995).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  49. Olson, D. M. Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on Earth. BioScience 51, 933–938 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Discussions with M. Futter, B. Obrador and C. Gudasz improved the manuscript. A. M. Kellerman commented on an early version of the manuscript. We thank B. Koehler for the data set on litter decay. We thank J. Schewe for his assistance with the interpretation of runoff change maps. The study was funded by grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS) and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to L.J.T. N.C. holds a Wenner-Gren foundation post-doctoral fellowship (2014–2016, Sweden). The participation of R.M. was supported by project REMEDIATION (CGL2014-57215-C4-2-R), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

N.C., D.N.K. and L.J.T conceived the study; N.C. performed the bibliographic review and the statistical analysis, with comments and suggestions from D.N.K., R.M. and L.J.T.; R.M. provided data on global accumulated runoff and performed the global analysis; N.C. wrote the manuscript with significant contributions from D.N.K., R.M. and L.J.T.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Núria Catalán.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 621 kb)

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (XLSX 56 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Catalán, N., Marcé, R., Kothawala, D. et al. Organic carbon decomposition rates controlled by water retention time across inland waters. Nature Geosci 9, 501–504 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2720

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2720

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing