Streams and rivers have recently been recognized as important players on the map of the global carbon cycle. Long considered as passive pipelines in the landscape that transport organic carbon from terrestrial ecosystems to the oceans, streams are now understood as “bioreactors” that actively contribute to carbon fluxes. Whether streams act as sources or sinks of CO2 at landscape level largely depends on the activity of heterotrophic organisms, the bioavailability of organic carbon, and the connectivity to the surrounding catchment. The balance between terrestrial deliveries of organic carbon, and the exchange with groundwater and in-stream processes determine this important role of streams in the global carbon cycle. Recent studies have highlighted organic carbon in glaciers that upon mobilization may become a potential source of organic carbon to Alpine streams. Using sensor networks, stable isotopes and modelling, we are studying carbon cycling in Alpine streams and its link to landscape features including glaciers.Further reading
1. Battin, TJ, Luyssaert, S., Kaplan, L. A.,. Aufdenkampe, A. K, Richter, A. & Tranvik, L. J. (2009) The boundless carbon cycle. Nature Geoscience, 2, 598-600.
2. Battin, TJ, L. A. Kaplan, S. Findlay, C. S. Hopkinson, E. Marti, A. I. Packman, J. D. Newbold & F. Sabater. (2008) Biophysical controls on organic carbon fluxes in fluvial networks. Nature Geoscience doi:10.1038/ngeo101.
3. Hood E, TJ Battin, J Fellman, S O’Neal & RGM Spencer (2015) Storage and release of organic carbon from glaciers and ice sheets. Nature Geoscience doi: 10.1038/NGEO2331.
4. Singer GA, C Fasching, L Wilhelm, J Niggemann, P Steier, T Dittmar & TJ Battin. (2012) Biogeochemically diverse organic matter in glaciers subsidises downstream metabolism in the European Alps. Nature Geoscience doi:10.1038/NGEO1581.
5. Peter H, GA Singer, C Preiler, P Chifflard & G Steniczka & TJ Battin (2014) Scales and drivers of temporal pCO2 dynamics in an Alpine stream. JGR-Biogeosciences 119 doi:10.1002/2013JG002552.