Abstract
Streams and rivers are known to be significant processors and emitters of carbon (C) to the atmosphere. There have been many large-scale estimates of fluvial C emissions, yet many lack quantification of temporal variability. Here, we compared the relative importance of spatial versus seasonal variability of CO\(_2\) and CH\(_4\) concentrations and fluxes, and DOC concentration in 23 streams and rivers spanning seven Strahler stream orders in two regions with contrasting watershed features, geomorphology and climate in boreal Québec. Much of the overall variance in pCO\(_2\), pCH\(_4\) and DOC concentration could be explained by region and site-specific properties rather than season. Region was the main driver of pCO\(_2\), pCH\(_4\), and DOC concentration followed by network-specific variability. pCO\(_2\) had the strongest seasonal patterns, yet season accounted only for 16% of the total variation, whereas intrinsic network and landscape properties accounted for 60%. Seasonality explained even less of the overall variability for pCH\(_4\) (5%) and DOC (6%) once the region and network features were accounted for. Despite significant spatial and temporal variation in pCO\(_2\) and pCH\(_4\) point fluxes were not significantly different between regions and seasons, because of a modulating interplay between concentration and gas exchange at the whole network scale. The declining trend of pCO\(_2\) and pCH\(_4\) with flow distance across all watersheds and seasons (even under ice and snow) suggests a predominance of network degassing independent of season, and together with the relative constancy of fluxes across regions and time further suggests that seasonality may be dampened when considering fluvial emissions at large spatial scales and especially when integrating these emissions at the whole network scale.
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Acknowledgements
This study was co-funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Hydro-Québec Industrial Research Chair in Carbon Biogeochemistry in Boreal Aquatic Systems (NSERC Grant # 592000), and the NSERC doctoral scholarship. We would like to thank the members of the CarBBAS group for field and lab assistance as well as Annick St-Pierre and Alice Parkes for logistics.
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Hutchins, R.H.S., Prairie, Y.T. & del Giorgio, P.A. The relative importance of seasonality versus regional and network-specific properties in determining the variability of fluvial CO\(_2\), CH\(_4\) and dissolved organic carbon across boreal Québec. Aquat Sci 83, 72 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-021-00830-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-021-00830-7