2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference

March 13 - 15, 2022

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5/26/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | A global assessment of organic carbon metabolism and spiraling in running waters | Virtual Platform

A global assessment of organic carbon metabolism and spiraling in running waters

The amount of organic carbon (OC) transported to and respired in streams and rivers remains unresolved in landscape and global carbon budgets. We synthesized published rates of stream and river OC metabolism and transport, from small streams to large rivers (0.01-17814 m3/s) in >25 countries, to trace the fate of carbon in running waters. We used whole-ecosystem metabolism (gross primary production and ecosystem respiration; GPP, ER) modeled from diel whole-stream oxygen data to calculate heterotrophic respiration (HR). We estimated OC mineralization velocities (i.e., biological OC demand) and OC spiraling lengths (i.e., the average distance OC travels downstream before being respired) from HR and OC fluxes. Median GPP and ER was 0.6 and 1.7 gCm-2d-1 (n=891 sites). For sites with available OC transport estimates, OC travels <1 to >500 km before being respired (n=143 sites). Ongoing analyses of discharge- and temperature-metabolism relationships will quantify how metabolism responds to environmental changes across ecosystem sizes and biomes. Using results from streams draining different landscapes, we will highlight how OC spiraling estimates advance our understanding of (1) terrestrial-aquatic ecosystem connections and (2) the consequences of land use change for freshwater ecosystem function.

Carbon cycle
Ecosystem functioning
Energy flows

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Presenters/Authors

Erin R. Hotchkiss (), Virginia Tech, ehotchkiss@vt.edu;