Carbon emission from hydroelectric reservoirs linked to reservoir age and latitude

• Published in: Nature geoscience Vol. 4; no. 9; pp. 593 - 596
• Main Authors: Barros, Nathan, Cole, Jonathan J., Tranvik, Lars J., Prairie, Yves T., Bastviken, David, Huszar, Vera L. M., del Giorgio, Paul, Roland, Fábio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group 01.09.2011
• ISSN: 1752-0894; 1752-0908; 1752-0908
• DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1211

Hydroelectric reservoirs cover an area of 3.4×105 km2 and comprise about 20% of all reservoirs. In addition, they contain large stores of formerly terrestrial organic carbon. Significant amounts of greenhouse gases are emitted, especially in the early years following reservoir creation, but the global extent of these emissions is poorly known. Previous estimates of emissions from all types of reservoir indicate that these human-made systems emit 321 Tg of carbon per year (ref. ). Here we assess the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane from hydroelectric reservoirs, on the basis of data from 85 globally distributed hydroelectric reservoirs that account for 20% of the global area of these systems. We relate the emissions to reservoir age, location biome, morphometric features and chemical status. We estimate that hydroelectric reservoirs emit about 48 Tg C as CO2 and 3 Tg C as CH4 , corresponding to 4% of global carbon emissions from inland waters. Our estimates are smaller than previous estimates on the basis of more limited data. Carbon emissions are correlated to reservoir age and latitude, with the highest emission rates from the tropical Amazon region. We conclude that future emissions will be highly dependent on the geographic location of new hydroelectric reservoirs.