Basin scale controls on CO2 and CH4 emissions from the Upper Mississippi River

The Upper Mississippi River, engineered for river navigation in the 1930s, includes a series of low-head dams and navigation pools receiving elevated sediment and nutrient loads from the mostly agricultural basin. Using high-resolution, spatially resolved water quality sensor measurements along 1385 river kilometers, we show that primary productivity and organic matter accumulation affect river carbon dioxide and methane emissions to the atmosphere. Phytoplankton drive CO2to near or below atmospheric equilibrium during the growing season, while anaerobic carbon oxidation supports a large proportion of the CO2 and CH4 production. Reductions of suspended sediment load, absent of dramatic reductions in nutrients, will...

Categories: Publication; Types: Journal Citation; Tags: Basin scale controls, C02 emissions, CH4 emissions, Carbon flux, Upper Mississippi River

Understanding and Projecting Changes in Climate, Hydrology, and Ecology in the Great Basin for the Next 30 Years

This project links climate, hydrological, and ecological changes over the next 30 years in a Great Basin watershed. In recent years, climate variability on annual and decadal time scales has been recognized as greater than commonly perceived with increasing impacts on ecosystems and available water resources. Changes in vegetation distribution, composition and productivity resulting from climate change affect plant water use, which in turn can alter stream flow, groundwater and eventually available water resources. To better understand these links, project researchers implemented two computer-based numeric models in the Cleve Creek watershed in the Schell Creek Range, east of Ely, Nevada. The application of the...

Categories: Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2013, CASC, Cleve Creek, Climate, Completed, All tags... Drought, Drought, Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather, Drought, Fire and Extreme Weather, Federal, Great Basin, Landscapes, Landscapes, NV, Other Landscapes, Other Landscapes, Pinyon/Juniper, Plants, Plants, Projects by Region, Rivers, Streams and Lakes, Rivers, Streams and Lakes, Southwest, Southwest CASC, Water, Coasts and Ice, Water, Coasts and Ice, Wildlife and Plants, Wildlife and Plants, carbon flux, desert shrub, downscale, drought, ecology, evaporation, gcm, great basin, hydrology, lai, maps, model, phenology, plants, pluvial, population growth, precipitation, productivity, rhessys, sage brush, snow, soil moisture, temperature, transpiration, vegetation, water, Fewer tags