Affiliations 

  • 1 Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT), Fahrenheitstrasse 6, 28359 Bremen, Germany
  • 2 Institute for Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Otto-Hahn-Allee 1, 28359 Bremen, Germany
  • 3 Research &Development Center for Marine &Coastal Resources (P3SDLP), Gedung II Balitbang KP Lantai 4, Jalan Pasir Putih II, Ancol Timur, Jakarta 14430, Indonesia
  • 4 Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus, Jalan Simpang Tiga, Kuching, Sarawak 93350, Malaysia
Nat Commun, 2015;6:10155.
PMID: 26670925 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10155

Abstract

River outgassing has proven to be an integral part of the carbon cycle. In Southeast Asia, river outgassing quantities are uncertain due to lack of measured data. Here we investigate six rivers in Indonesia and Malaysia, during five expeditions. CO2 fluxes from Southeast Asian rivers amount to 66.9 ± 15.7 Tg C per year, of which Indonesia releases 53.9 ± 12.4 Tg C per year. Malaysian rivers emit 6.2 ± 1.6 Tg C per year. These moderate values show that Southeast Asia is not the river outgassing hotspot as would be expected from the carbon-enriched peat soils. This is due to the relatively short residence time of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the river, as the peatlands, being the primary source of DOC, are located near the coast. Limitation of bacterial production, due to low pH, oxygen depletion or the refractory nature of DOC, potentially also contributes to moderate CO2 fluxes as this decelerates decomposition.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.