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Does Flood Pulsing Act as a Switch to Store or Release Sediment-Bound Carbon in Seasonal Floodplain Lakes? Case Study from the Colombian Orinoco-Llanos and the Brazilian Pantanal

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Abstract

Wetlands have been identified as key elements of global carbon budgets. Today, due to increasing anthropogenic carbon emissions, the carbon storage capacity of these ecosystems has become of global interest. The focus of this research was to determine the storage capacity and mechanisms of carbon sequestration of Neotropical seasonal shallow lakes (SSLs), assessing their flood pulse, biomass, geomorphology and sediment composition. We applied a standardized and extensive sampling to five SSLs from the Colombian Orinoco-Llanos and five from the Brazilian Pantanal, during both flooded and non-flooded seasons. We found that sediment organic carbon (SOC) storage capacity in SSLs is significantly driven by the number of flooded days (p-value = 0.0057) rather than by their biomass production. The Orinoco-Llanos and Pantanal lakes differ in morphology, and thus in their inundation patterns. SSLs of the Orinoco-Llanos are more concave, having a significantly higher number of flooded days/year than SSLs from Pantanal. These hydrologic differences affect SOC storage, resulting in a significantly higher SOC storage in SSLs from Orinoco-Llanos than in Pantanal. A synopsis of data from both regions suggests the existence of a critical threshold between “non-flooded season losses” and “non-flooded season storage” of SOC in SSLs in a range of 225–275 flooded days/year.

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Acknowledgments

This research was partially supported by National Institute for Science and Technology of Wetlands (INCT-INAU), Brazil, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), State Law on Graduate Funding (LGFG), Germany, the Carbiocial project (www.carbiocial.de) and Idea Wild. We would like to thank the Pantanal Research Centre (CPP) and National Institute for Science and Technology of Wetlands (INCT-INAU) in Brazil, and Las Aguilas Ranch, Educational Institute of Cusiana (IEC) and University of Tropic, Casanare, in Colombia, for their logistical support. We express our gratitude to all field and laboratory assistants involved in this work, especially Abilio Moraes, Thayse M. Marestoni, and Sejana Arteaga in Brazil, and Ricardo Sá, Vicente Preciado, Ginna Cruz, Lukas de Ventura and Jennifer Ardila in Colombia. We thank a number of ranches: Retiro Novo, Aparecida, Oreana, and Paulo das Canoas in Brazil, and Cuernavaca, Arizona and Flor Amarillo in Colombia. We also thank Diego Orduz for kindly assisting us with designing illustrations and Luisa F. Ricaurte for her comments on the manuscript. Paper #2 of the UNESCO Chair on River Culture/Fleuve et Patrimoine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Limnologisches Institut, Universität Konstanz, Mainaustraße 252, 78464, Konstanz/Egg, Germany

    Luisa F. Vega & Karl-Otto Rothaupt

  2. Laboratório de Ecología Vegetal (NEPA), Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Av. Fernando Correia s/n, Coxipó, 78060-900, Cuiaba, MT, Brazil

    Cátia Nunes da Cunha

  3. Isotope Ecology laboratory, CENA/USP, Av. Centenário, 303, Piracicaba, SP, CEP 13416-903, Brazil

    Marcelo Z. Moreira

  4. UNESCO Chair for River Culture (Fleuve et Patrimoine), Interdisciplinary Research Center for Cities, Territories, Environment and Society (CITERES-CNRS UMR 7324), Université François Rabelais, Parc Grandmont, 37200, Tours, France

    Karl M. Wantzen

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  1. Luisa F. Vega
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  2. Cátia Nunes da Cunha
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  3. Karl-Otto Rothaupt
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  4. Marcelo Z. Moreira
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Correspondence to Luisa F. Vega.

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Vega, L.F., Nunes da Cunha, C., Rothaupt, KO. et al. Does Flood Pulsing Act as a Switch to Store or Release Sediment-Bound Carbon in Seasonal Floodplain Lakes? Case Study from the Colombian Orinoco-Llanos and the Brazilian Pantanal. Wetlands 34, 177–187 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-013-0495-9

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