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Temporal and spatial characteristics of dissolved organic carbon in the Wujiang River, Southwest China

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Abstract

River systems play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Rivers transport carbon to the ocean and also affect the carbon cycle in the coastal ocean. The flux from land to the ocean is thought to be a very important part of the land carbon budget. To investigate the effect of dam-building on dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in rivers, three reservoirs of different trophic states in the Wujiang basin, Guizhou Province, were sampled twice per month between May 2011 and May 2012. Temporal and spatial distributions of DOC in the reservoirs and their released waters were studied. It was found that different factors controlled DOC in river water, reservoir water, and released water. DOC in the rivers tended to be affected by primary production. For reservoirs, the main controlling factors of DOC concentration varied by trophic state. For the mesotrophic Hongjiadu Reservoir, the effect of primary production on DOC concentration was obvious. For the eutrophic Dongfengdu Reservoir and the hypereutrophic Wujiangdu Reservoir, primary production was not significant and DOC came instead from soil and plant litter.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Zhou Yang, Lifeng Cui, BaiLing Fan, and Hongming Cai from the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for collecting samples. This study was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFA0601001) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1612441 and 41473082).

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Correspondence to Baoli Wang.

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Peng, X., Wang, B. & Zhao, Y. Temporal and spatial characteristics of dissolved organic carbon in the Wujiang River, Southwest China. Acta Geochim 36, 598–604 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-017-0195-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-017-0195-x

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