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Large contribution to inland water CO2 and CH4 emissions from very small ponds

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 222–226 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Inland waters are an important component of the global carbon cycle. Although they contribute to greenhouse gas emissions1,2,3,4,5, estimates of carbon processing in these waters are uncertain. The global extent of very small ponds, with surface areas of less than 0.001 km2, is particularly difficult to map, resulting in their exclusion from greenhouse gas budget estimates. Here we combine estimates of the lake and pond global size distribution, gas exchange rates, and measurements of carbon dioxide and methane concentrations from 427 lakes and ponds ranging in surface area from 2.5 m2 to 674 km2. We estimate that non-running inland waters release 0.583 Pg C yr−1. Very small ponds comprise 8.6% of lakes and ponds by area globally, but account for 15.1% of CO2 emissions and 40.6% of diffusive CH4 emissions. In terms of CO2 equivalence, the ratio of CO2 to CH4 flux increases with surface area, from about 1.5 in very small ponds to about 19 in large lakes. The high fluxes from very small ponds probably result from shallow waters, high sediment and edge to water volume ratios, and frequent mixing. These attributes increase CO2 and CH4 supersaturation in the water and limit efficient methane oxidation. We conclude that very small ponds represent an important inland water carbon flux.

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Figure 1: CO2 and CH4 concentrations in relation to lake surface area and latitude.
Figure 2: Estimated global flux of CO2 and CH4 for each lake size class.

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Change history

  • 09 February 2016

    In the original version of this Letter published online, the scale of the x axis in panels a, c and e in Fig. 1 did not extend over the full data range, and as a result three data points were omitted from each panel. In addition, all instances of 'Supplementary Methods' and 'Supplementary References' have been changed to 'Supplementary Information'. This has been corrected in all versions of the Letter.

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Acknowledgements

M.A.H. was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1122492) and Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. We thank D. Skelly and D. Post for helpful discussion and comments on a previous version of the manuscript. We also thank the authors whose data we included in this meta-analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA

    Meredith A. Holgerson & Peter A. Raymond

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  1. Meredith A. Holgerson
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Contributions

M.A.H. and P.A.R. conceived and designed the analysis. M.A.H. compiled all data, performed data analysis, and wrote most of the manuscript. P.A.R. aided in data interpretation and helped to write the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Meredith A. Holgerson.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Holgerson, M., Raymond, P. Large contribution to inland water CO2 and CH4 emissions from very small ponds. Nature Geosci 9, 222–226 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2654

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