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| Titel |
Inorganic and organic carbon spatial variability in the Congo River during high waters (December 2013) |
| VerfasserIn |
Alberto V. Borges, Steven Bouillon, Cristian Teodoru, Bruno Leporcq, Jean-Pierre Descy, François Darchambeau |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250088823
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-2986.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Rivers are important components of the global carbon cycle, as they transport terrestrial
organic matter from the land to the sea, and emit CO2 to the atmosphere. In particular,
tropical systems that account for 60% of global freshwater discharge to the oceans. In
contrast with south American rivers, very little information is available for African rivers on
their carbon flows and stocks, in particular the Congo river, the second largest river in the
World in terms of freshwater discharge (1457 km3 yr-1) and in terms of drainage basin (3.75
106 km2) located the second largest tropical forest in the World. Here, we report a data-set of
continuous (every minute) records of the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) (total of 10,000
records), and discrete samples of particulate (POC) and dissolved (DOC) organic carbon
(total of 75 samples) in the mainstem and major tributaries of the Congo river, along
the 1700 km stretch from Kisangani to Kinshasa (total river length = 4374 km),
during the high water period (December 2013). The pCO2 dynamic range was high
ranging from minimum values of 2000 ppm in white waters tributaries (higher
turbidity, conductivity and O2, lower DOC), up to maximal values of 18,000 ppm in
blackwaters tributaries (lower turbidity, conductivity and O2, higher DOC). In the
mainstem, very strong horizontal (cross-section) gradients were imposed by the
presence of blackwaters close to the riverbanks and the presence of whitewaters in the
middle of the river. In the mainstem, a distinct horizontal (longitudinal) pattern was
observed with pCO2 increasing, and conductivity and turbidity decreasing downstream. |
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