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The boundless carbon cycle

Nature Geoscience volume 2, pages 598–600 (2009)Cite this article

The terrestrial biosphere is assumed to take up most of the carbon on land. However, it is becoming clear that inland waters process large amounts of organic carbon and must be considered in strategies to mitigate climate change.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increased from ∼280 ppm before the industrial revolution to over 384 ppm in 2008 (ref. 1). This increase reflects only about half of the CO2 emissions from human activities; the other half has been sequestered in the oceans and on land2,3 (Box 1). Although the location and magnitude of continental carbon sinks remain uncertain4, they are assumed to lie within the terrestrial biosphere. We argue that inland waters have a significant role in the sequestration, transport and mineralization of organic carbon. Integration of these fluxes into the traditional carbon cycle is needed for appropriate CO2 management and climate change mitigation.

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Figure 1: The 'boundless carbon cycle'.

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Acknowledgements

This Commentary originated from the ESF/COST 'Complex Systems and Changes: Water and Life' and from joint efforts between the LEREC project (Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning) to L.J.T. and the START-project ARCARNET (Austrian BMWF and FWF) to T.J.B. S.L. was supported by the Centre of Excellence ECO (UA-Methusalem) and the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen), and L.A.K. and A.K.A. by the US NSF (EAR-0450331, DEB-0516449).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Limnology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 752 36, Sweden

    Tom J. Battin & Lars J. Tranvik

  2. Department of Limnology, University of Vienna, Vienna, 1090, Austria

    Tom J. Battin

  3. Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, 2610, Belgium

    Sebastiaan Luyssaert

  4. Stroud Water Research Center, Avondale, 19311, Pennsylvania, USA

    Louis A. Kaplan & Anthony K. Aufdenkampe

  5. Department of Chemical Ecology and Ecosystem Ecology, University of Vienna, Vienna, 1090, Austria

    Andreas Richter

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  1. Tom J. Battin
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Correspondence to Tom J. Battin.

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Battin, T., Luyssaert, S., Kaplan, L. et al. The boundless carbon cycle. Nature Geosci 2, 598–600 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo618

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