Long-term trend and drivers of inter-annual variability of surface water dissolved organic carbon concentration in a forested watershed

Abstract

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations have increased over the past few decades in surface waters across Europe and North America. This has drawn a lot of attention, given the key role of DOC in the global carbon cycle and in surface water biogeochemistry and ecology. While many reports have focused on DOC response to environmental changes in headwater streams and lakes taken separately, there is a lack of studies that combines streams and lakes with varying catchment characteristics in a network-scale perspective. Here, long-term (1987–2018) trends were analyzed and environmental drivers of year-to-year variations in DOC concentrations were examined in headwater streams, lakes and lake outflows at the Turkey Lakes Watershed (TLW) in Ontario, Canada. Results indicated significant increasing of DOC trends in ten out of 12 headwater streams and in four out of 12 lakes and lake outflows …

Publication
CATENA

abstract: “Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations have increased over the past few decades in surface waters across Europe and North America. This has drawn a lot of attention, given the key role of DOC in the global carbon cycle and in surface water biogeochemistry and ecology. While many reports have focused on DOC response to environmental changes in headwater streams and lakes taken separately, there is a lack of studies that combines streams and lakes with varying catchment characteristics in a network-scale perspective. Here, long-term (1987–2018) trends were analyzed and environmental drivers of year-to-year variations in DOC concentrations were examined in headwater streams, lakes and lake outflows at the Turkey Lakes Watershed (TLW) in Ontario, Canada. Results indicated significant increasing of DOC trends in ten out of 12 headwater streams and in four out of 12 lakes and lake outflows …” authors:


Erik J.S. Emilson
Erik J.S. Emilson
Research Scientist, Watershed Ecology Team Lead, Associate Editor CJFR

I am interested in how forests support freshwater ecosystem services. My research combines microbial and molecular approaches to undertand how forest productivity and disturbances affect ecosystem functions in headwater streams and lakes.