Carbon Dioxide Efflux and Storage in Small, Drying Alpine Ponds

Abstract

Climate change is expected to influence the drying regimes of small ponds, impacting their carbon cycling capabilities and potentially inducing unprecedented pond drying that could lead to higher greenhouse gas efflux rates. Small ponds are already known to release disproportionately high amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. Riverine, lake and large pond systems have all received increasing attention, both for their vulnerability to climate change and their ability to exacerbate it. Yet the role of small ponds, especially alpine ponds, has remained understudied. The goal of our work was to quantify aqueous CO2 concentrations in small alpine ponds in northwestern Colorado and to explore the drivers of these concentrations. Additionally, we linked these concentrations to drying patterns and the unique characteristics of ponds with different permanence traits. We found that these ponds had smaller concentrations than comparable small ponds at temperate latitudes, and more closely resembled concentrations in boreal ponds. Our study ponds had aqueous CO2 concentrations ranging from 33.6 to 77.6 μmol/L, as compared to measurements as high as 360 μmol/L in Connecticut ponds. We found that permanence traits had no significant relationship with CO2 concentrations early in the season, and that dissolved oxygen was not a good predictor of these concentrations. Further work will be conducted into investigating CO2 concentration drivers. Our work impacts understanding of the global carbon budget with respect to the role of small ponds.

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