A massive world-wide study of dry riverbeds has found they’re contributing more carbon emissions than previously thought, and this could help scientists better understand how to fight climate change.
A massive world-wide study of dry riverbeds has found they’re contributing more carbon emissions than previously thought, and this could help scientists better understand how to fight climate change.
Dr Nathan Waltham from JCU’s Tropical Water and Aquatic Eco-systems Research Centre (TropWATER) joined scientists from 22 other countries who looked at 212 dry riverbeds on every continent on earth.
He said the contribution of intermittent rivers and streams to the process of carbon cycling – the process by which carbon is circulated around the ecosystem – is largely ignored.
“There is a substantial amount of plant litter that accumulates in dry riverbeds and when they flow again this material can breakdown rapidly. We’ve now estimated the potential short-term CO2 emissions during these rewetting events.”
Read more at James Cook University
Photo Credit: seelikefinn via Pixabay
