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Low-order streams are suggested to dominate the atmospheric CO2 source of all inland waters. Yet, many large-scale stream estimates suffer from methods not designed for gas emission determination and rarely include other greenhouse gases such as CH4. Here, we present a compilation of directly measured CO2 and CH4 concentration data from Swedish low-order streams (> 1600 observations across > 500 streams) covering large climatological and land-use gradients. These data were combined with an empirically derived gas transfer model and the characteristics of a ca. 400,000 km stream network covering the entire country. The total stream CO2 and CH4 emission corresponded to 2.7 Tg C yr(-1) (95% confidence interval: 2.0-3.7) of which the CH4 accounted for 0.7% (0.02 Tg C yr(-1)). The study highlights the importance of low-order streams, as well as the critical need to better represent variability in emissions and stream areal extent to constrain future stream C emission estimates.

Climate change projections show that temperature and precipitation increases can alter the exchange of greenhouse gases between the atmosphere and high latitude landscapes, including their freshwaters. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) plays an important role in greenhouse gas emissions, but the impact of catchment productivity on DOC release to subarctic waters remains poorly known, especially at regional scales. We test the hypothesis that increased terrestrial productivity, as indicated by the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), generates higher stream DOC concentrations in the Stordalen catchment in subarctic Sweden. Furthermore, we aimed to determine the degree to which other generic catchment properties (elevation, slope) explain DOC concentration, and whether or not land cover variables representing the local vegetation type (e.g., mire, forest) need to be included to obtain adequate predictive models for DOC delivered into rivers. We show that the land cover type, especially the proportion of mire, played a dominant role in the catchment's release of DOC, while NDVI, slope, and elevation were supporting predictor variables. The NDVI as a single predictor showed weak and inconsistent relationships to DOC concentrations in recipient waters, yet NDVI was a significant positive regulator of DOC in multiple regression models that included land cover variables. Our study illustrates that vegetation type exerts primary control in DOC regulation in Stordalen, while productivity (NDVI) is of secondary importance. Thus, predictive multiple linear regression models for DOC can be utilized combining these different types of explanatory variables.

Northern regions have received considerable attention not only because the effects of climate change are amplified at high latitudes but also because this region holds vast amounts of carbon (C) stored in permafrost. These carbon stocks are vulnerable to warming temperatures and increased permafrost thaw and the breakdown and release of soil C in the form of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄). The majority of research has focused on quantifying and upscaling the effects of thaw on CO₂ and CH₄ emissions from terrestrial systems. However, small ponds formed in permafrost wetlands following thawing have been recognized as hotspots for C emissions. Here, we examined the importance of small ponds for C fluxes in two permafrost wetland ecosystems in northern Sweden. Detailed flux estimates of thaw ponds during the growing season show that ponds emit, on average (±SD), 279 ± 415 and 7 ± 11 mmol C m⁻² d⁻¹ of CO₂ and CH₄, respectively. Importantly, addition of pond emissions to the total C budget of the wetland decreases the C sink by ~39%. Our results emphasize the need for integrated research linking C cycling on land and in water in order to make correct assessments of contemporary C balances.

CO₂ evasion from freshwater lakes is an important component of the carbon cycle. However, the relative contribution from different lake sizes may vary, since several parameters underlying CO₂ flux are size dependent. Here we estimated the annual lake CO₂ evasion from a catchment in northern Sweden encompassing about 30,000 differently sized lakes. We show that areal CO₂ fluxes decreased rapidly with lake size, but this was counteracted by the greater overall coverage of larger lakes. As a result, total efflux increased with lake size and the single largest lake in the catchment dominated the CO₂ evasion (53% of all CO₂ evaded). By contrast, the contribution from the smallest ponds (about 27,000) was minor (<6%). Our results emphasize the importance of accounting for both CO₂ flux rates and areal contribution of various sized lakes in assessments of CO₂ evasion at the landscape scale.

Climate warming raises the question whether high-latitude landscape still function as net carbon (C) sinks. By compiling an integrated C balance for an intensely studied subarctic catchment, we show that this catchment's C balance is not likely to be a strong current sink of C, a commonly held assumption. In fact, it is more plausible (71% probability) that the studied catchment functions as a C source (-1120gCm(-2)yr(-1)). Analyses of individual fluxes indicate that soil and aquatic C losses offset C sequestering in other landscape components (e.g., peatlands and aboveground forest biomass). Our results stress the importance of fully integrated catchment C balance estimates and highlight the importance of upland soils and their interaction with the aquatic network for the catchment C balance.

Understanding the drivers of climate change requires knowledge about the global carbon (C) cycle. Although inland waters play an important role in the C cycle by emitting and burying C, streams and lakes are in general overlooked in bottom-up approached C budgets. In this thesis I estimated emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from all lakes and streams in a 15 km2 subarctic catchment in northern Sweden, and put it in relation to the total catchment C exchange. I show that high-latitude aquatic systems in general and streams in particular are hotspots for C emission to the atmosphere. Annually, the aquatic systems surveyed in this study emitted about 10.8 ± 4.9 g C m-2 yr-1 (ca. 98 % as CO2) which is more than double the amount of the C laterally exported from the catchment. Although the streams only covered about 4% of the total aquatic area they emitted ca. 95% of the total aquatic C emission. For lake emissions, the ice break-ups were the most important annual events, counting for ca. 45% of the emissions. Overall, streams dominated the aquatic CO2 emission in the catchment while lakes dominated CH4 emission, 96 % and 62 % of the totals, respectively. When summing terrestrial and aquatic C fluxes together it showed that the aquatic emissions alone account for approximately two thirds of the total annual catchment C loss. The consequence of not including inland waters in bottom-up derived C budgets is therefore a risk of overestimating the sink capacity of the subarctic landscape. However, aquatic systems can also act as C sinks, by accumulating C in sediment and thereby storing C over geological time frames. Sediment C burial rates were estimated in six lakes from a chronology based on 210Pb dating of multiple sediment cores. The burial rate ranged between 5 - 25 g C m-2 yr-1, which is of the same magnitude as lake C emissions. I show that the emission:burial ratio is about ten times higher in boreal compared to in subarctic-arctic lakes. These results indicate that the balance between lakes C emission and burial is both directly and indirectly dependent on climate. This process will likely result in a future increase of C emissions from high-latitude lakes, while the C burial capacity of these same lakes sediments weaken.

The winter period is seldom included in the estimates of aquatic-atmospheric carbon exchange. In this study we quantified the flux of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) over 3 years from 12 small subarctic lakes. The lakes accumulated consistent and high amounts of CO₂ and CH₄ (56–97% as CO₂) over the winter, resulting in a high flux during ice thaw. The CO₂ flux during ice thaw increased with increasing mean depth of the lakes, while the CH₄ flux was high in lakes surrounded by mires. The ice thaw period was quantitatively important to the annual gas balances of the lakes. For nine of the lakes, 11 to 55% of the annual flux occurred during thaw. For three of the lakes with an apparent net annual CO₂ uptake, including the thaw period reversed the balance from sink to source. Our results suggest that the ice thaw period is critically important for the emissions of CO₂ and CH₄ in small lakes.

Northern inland waters emit CO2 and CH4 to the atmosphere but the importance of these emissions is poorly understood due to a lack of integrated catchment-scale estimates of carbon (C) emissions from lakes and streams. In this study we quantified the annual emission of CO2 and CH4 from 27 lakes and 23 stream segments in a 15km(2) subarctic catchment in northern Sweden. All lakes and streams were net sources of C to the atmosphere on an annual basis. Streams dominated (96%) the aquatic CO2 emission while lakes (61%) dominated the aquatic CH4 emission. Total aquatic C emission from the catchment was estimated to be 9.1gCm(-2)yr(-1) (98% as CO2). Although streams only accounted for 4% of the aquatic area in the catchment, they accounted for 95% of the total emission. The C emissions from lakes and streams were considerably larger than previously reported downstream waterborne export of C from the catchment, indicating that the atmospheric losses of C in the aquatic systems are an important component in the catchment C balance.

Current predictions of climate-related changes in high-latitude environments suggest major effects on the C export in streams and rivers. To what extent this will also affect the stream water CO2 concentrations is poorly understood. In this study we examined the spatiotemporal variation in partial pressure of CO2 (pCO(2)) and in stable isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon (delta C-13-DIC) in subarctic streams in northern Sweden. The selected watersheds are characterized by large variations in high-latitude boreal forest and tundra and differences in bedrock. We found that all streams generally were supersaturated in pCO(2) with an average concentration of 850 mu atm. The variability in pCO(2) across streams was poorly related to vegetation cover, and carbonaceous bedrock influence was manifested in high DIC concentrations but not reflected in either stream pCO(2) or delta C-13-DIC. Stream water pCO(2) values were highest during winter base flow when we also observed the lowest delta C-13-DIC values, and this pattern is interpreted as a high contribution from CO2 from soil respiration. Summer base flow delta C-13-DIC values probably are more affected by in situ stream processes such as aquatic production/respiration and degassing. A challenge for further studies will be to disentangle the origin of stream water CO2 and quantify their relative importance.

High latitude ecosystems have served as net sinks of atmospheric carbon (C) in the Holocene time perspective. However, the ongoing climate warming makes it questionable if high latitude landscapes still function as net C sinks. In this study we used multiyear high resolution C flux data to estimate an integrated terrestrial-aquatic C balance of a sub-arctic catchment. The results indicate large inter annual variability in C fluxes and suggest that the C sink function of this landscape is weak, especially when also accounting for the often neglected C losses from aquatic systems. In fact, our results suggest that it is more likely that the studied catchment serves as a net source of C rather than a net sink. These results highlight the importance of inland waters in the C cycle and that the strength of the C sequestering in the contemporary sub-arctic environment is much weaker than often assumed.