Amazon River exhales carbon dioxide
Researchers doing field work in the Amazon River Basin often travel one-lane dirt roads that requires fording streams and maneuvering along the tops of 1,000 foot precipices. (Universtiy of Washington)
According to scientists, the Amazon River is “breathing” – exhaling C02 or carbon dioxide – similar to the way that you or I expel this gas with every out breath.
Trees and plants take in CO2 during photosynthesis. Now it’s known that the Amazon River, in effect, breathes CO2 back out again. It happens because soil, bark and leaf litter are washed into the river. The teeming tropical river life – microorganisms, insects, fish – gobble up this material, and breathe the C02 back out.
How much, and how fast the Amazon River “breathes” is the question for Jeff Richey at the University of Washington. His research shows that C02 from plants with short life spans – like grass – make the river breathe faster than older carbon – say, from big, old trees.
Jeff Richey: The land and the water are much more tightly tied together than people thought. So it also means that if you start changing the land, the whole water system is going to change as well.
Richey now wants to learn how changes in a river’s respiration affects river life and water quality.
Jeff Richey: Think of it as: it gives you the pulse of the system. So if the CO2 level’s changing in the water, that can be a sign that the overall metabolism is changing. so it signals something. It’s a harbinger, canary in the mine if you would.
Thanks today to NASA: explore, discover, understand.
Transcript of Earth & Sky’s interview with Jeff Richey.
Amazon source of five-year-old river breath, from the University of Washington
Richey’s research in the Amazon is a part of the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia, a cooperative international project led by Brazil.
Additional Teacher Resources
National Science Foundation: Amazon River Cycles Carbon Faster than Thought
The rivers of South America’s Amazon basin are “breathing” far harder – and cycling the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide far faster – than anyone realized. Most of the carbon being exhaled as carbon dioxide from Amazonian rivers and wetlands has spent a mere five years sequestered in the trees, plants and soils of the surrounding landscape. This article explains the implications of this discovery and provides additional resources as well.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Carbon goes full circle in the Amazon
In studying Earth’s carbon cycle, scientists are trying to understand the role played by huge tropical rainforests such as the Amazon River basin. In particular, they want to determine how long an ecosystem stores atmospheric carbon dioxide in its plants, soils, and rivers. This article explains the LLNL’s research in the Amazon and provides links to more information.
