Journal Article

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Freshwater Reservoirs

Harrison, John, Beaulieu, Jake, Guérin, Frédéric, Mercier-Blais, Sara, Vachon, Dominic, Battin, Tom, Harby, Atle, Prairie, Yves T., Cole, Jonathan, Barros, Nathan, DelSontro, Tonya, del Giorgio, Paul, Sobek, Sebastian, Alm, Jukka, Serça, Dominique

2018

Overview

Freshwater reservoirs are a known source of greenhouse gas (GHG) to the atmosphere, but their quantitative significance is still only loosely constrained. Although part of this uncertainty can be attributed to the difficulties in measuring highly variable fluxes, it is also the result of a lack of a clear accounting methodology, particularly about what constitutes new emissions and potential new sinks. In this paper, we review the main processes involved in the generation of GHG in reservoir systems and propose a simple approach to quantify the reservoir GHG footprint in terms of the net changes in GHG fluxes to the atmosphere induced by damming, that is, ‘what the atmosphere sees.’ The approach takes into account the pre-impoundment GHG balance of the landscape, the temporal evolution of reservoir GHG emission profile as well as the natural emissions that are displaced to or away from the reservoir site resulting from hydrological and other changes. It also clarifies the portion of the reservoir carbon burial that can potentially be considered an offset to GHG emissions.

• Publisher: Springer Science + Business Media,Springer US,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: accounting / Air pollution / Atmosphere / Biomedical and Life Sciences / C burial / carbon / CO2and CH4emissions / dams (hydrology) / Ecology / Emissions / Environmental aspects / Environmental Management / Fluxes / Fresh water / freshwater / Geoecology/Natural Processes / GHG footprint / Greenhouse effect / greenhouse gas emissions / Greenhouse gases / Hydrology / Hydrology/Water Resources / landscapes / Life Sciences / Mini Reviews / Plant Sciences / Reservoirs / uncertainty / Zoology