Controls on aquatic carbon cycling in a carbonate dominated groundwater catchment using dissolved oxygen dynamics

Abstract:

Carbon cycling in aquatic systems is increasingly seen as playing an important role in global carbon budgets and hence on potential impacts and controls on global warming. However, determining the partitioning within and transfer between different carbon stores is a major challenge, particularly where there are multiple sources and controls on carbon utilisation. Dissolved oxygen, DO, provides a proxy for investigating the dynamics of carbon utilisation in aquatic systems. High temporal resolution monitoring of DO at multiple site on the Hampshire Avon, a chalk dominated permeable catchment in southern England, UK, has been investigated using a dynamic DO model in order to investigate the biochemical cycling of carbon. Gross primary production, governed by photosynthetically active radiation, is determined through inverse modelling. Model simplification though parameter reduction is achieved through investigating controls on aeration (the transfer of oxygen across the atmosphere-river interface) and respiration. Seasonal changes in biomass affect long term oxygen dynamics, which are compounded by episodic hydrological events that control the partitioning of surface water and groundwater in the stream channel and consequently the sources of carbon and DO in the river channel. Using variations in surface geology across the catchment the impacts of varying baseflow characteristics on carbon cycling within the catchment is demonstrated.