Abstract
Rivers act as a source of CO2 to the atmosphere and some of the implied inorganic carbon comes from the aquifer-river connectivity through groundwater discharges to surface water. This study aims to quantify groundwater discharge entering the stream and to estimate this external input to the riverine inorganic carbon cycle, as both dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and CO2 in the Matane River (Qc, Canada). Two approaches based on radon (222Rn) mass balance models, DIC, total alkalinity (TA), pH and PCO2 measurements were developed to quantify groundwater discharges and associated DIC and CO2 fluxes at a high- (< 1 km) and low- (> 1 km) resolution scales. Groundwater discharges were heterogeneous along the riverbed with mean linear inputs varying from 3.1 to 51.9 m3·day−1·m−1 depending on the scale. The associated fluxes of DIC ranged between 7.4 and 132.9 mol·day−1·m−1 and corresponded to only less than 13% of the total DIC transported by the river. Regarding CO2, however, the contribution of groundwater to CO2 emission fluxes reached 81% to 287% of the river's internal CO2 production. Exceeding groundwater-derived CO2 flux compared to the total CO2 flux from the river probably highlights the instantaneous degassing of CO2 as soon as groundwater discharges to the surface water. These results shed light on the key role of groundwater in the riverine inorganic carbon cycle in a subarctic region, and specifically in the CO2 evasion to the atmosphere. Such quantifications are particularly important in northern systems where important changes in hydroclimatic conditions and terrestrial carbon storage are undergoing and are expected to continue to undergo.
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Data availability
Along with this submission, the dataset used in this research was submitted and accepted for publication to Pangaea Data Publisher (www.pangaea.de). Once this article accepted for publication, the moratorium in place will be lifted and the dataset generated during the study will be freely available in the Pangaea repository. Here is the hyperlink and DOI toward the dataset: https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.944092
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the numerous field assistants (Yan Boulet, Dr. Mathilde Couturier, Dr. Janie Masse-Dufresne, Gwendoline Tommi-Morin and Makenzy Roland Tout-Puissant) for their help in the field and to collect the samples; Dr. Jens Rassmann for his help with alkalinity analysis; and Steeven Ouellet (UQAR) for the laboratory support. The authors thank Pr. Pascal Bernatchez (UQAR), Pr. Vincent Cloutier and Pr. Geneviève Bordeleau as well as two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that improve the manuscript.
Funding
This project is a contribution to the Programme d’acquisition des connaissances sur les eaux-souterraines (PACES) 2012–2015 funded by the Ministere de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques of the Quebec Governement. The research was supported by the Canada Research Chair Program and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grant (RGPIN-2018–06350 to GC), and the Université du Québec à Rimouski (GC, TBB).
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AB: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing—Original Draft, Writing—Review & Editing, Visualization. GC: Conceptualization, Validation, Resources, Investigation, Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. TB-B: Resources, Investigation, Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. PB: Investigation, Writing—Review & Editing, Supervision.
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Biehler, A., Buffin-Bélanger, T., Baudron, P. et al. Groundwater discharge contribution to dissolved inorganic carbon and riverine carbon emissions in a subarctic region. Biogeochemistry 165, 129–150 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01060-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-023-01060-9