Spatial patterns and environmental controls of particulate organic carbon in surface waters in the conterminous United States

Q Yang; X Zhang; X Xu; GR Asrar; RA Smith; JS Shih; S Duan

Journal article

Spatial patterns and environmental controls of particulate organic carbon in surface waters in the conterminous United States

Q Yang, X Zhang, X Xu, GR Asrar, RA Smith, JS Shih, S Duan

Science of the Total Environment | ELSEVIER | Published : 2016

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.164

Abstract

Carbon cycling in inland waters has been identified as an important, but poorly constrained component of the global carbon cycle. In this study, we compile and analyze particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration data from 1145 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) gauge stations to investigate the spatial variability and environmental controls of POC concentration. We observe substantial spatial variability in POC concentration (1.43 ± 2.56 mg C/L, mean ± one standard deviation), with the Upper Mississippi River basin and the Piedmont region in the eastern U.S. having the highest POC concentration. Further, we employ generalized linear models (GLMs) to analyze the impacts of sediment transport an..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Qichun Yang Author

Grants

Awarded by U.S. Department of Energy

Funding Acknowledgements

We sincerely appreciate the valuable comments provided by the anonymous reviewers. This work was funded by the NASA New Investigator Award (NIP, NNH13ZDA001N) and Terrestrial Ecology Program (NNH12AU03I) as part of the North American Carbon Program, and the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (DOE BER Office of Science DE-FC02-07ER64494, DOE BER Office of Science KP1601050, DOE EERE OBP 20469-19145).