US rivers and streams saturated with carbon

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/yu-ura101711.php

Public release date: 17-Oct-2011

Contact: David DeFusco
[e-mail]
203-436-4842
http://www.yale.edu/">Yale University

US rivers and streams saturated with carbon

New Haven, Conn.— Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing enough carbon into the atmosphere to fuel 3.4 million car trips to the moon, according to Yale researchers in Nature Geoscience. Their findings could change the way scientists model the movement of carbon between land, water and the atmosphere.

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The researchers assert that a significant amount of carbon contained in land, which first is absorbed by plants and forests through the air, is leaking into streams and rivers and then released into the atmosphere before reaching coastal waterways.

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They analyzed samples taken by the United States Geological Survey from over 4,000 rivers and streams throughout the United States, and incorporated highly detailed geospatial data to model the flux of carbon dioxide from water. This release of carbon, said Butman, is the same as a car burning 40 billion gallons of gasoline.

The paper, titled "Significant Efflux of Carbon Dioxide from Streams and Rivers in the United States," also indicates that as the climate heats up there will be more rain and snow, and that an increase in precipitation will result in even more terrestrial carbon flowing into rivers and streams and being released into the atmosphere.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1294

[kestrel91316]

1. Repigs are gonna claim that this shows rivers and streams CAUSE GLOBAL WARMIG

and should therefore be dried up. And they'll find a way to profit from it, too.

[tabatha]

2. You are right.

Some years back when the inaccurate film was produced in the UK, a woman I once corresponded with, stated after viewing the film, that the ocean was the biggest source of CO2.

I pointed her to wiki, and our conversations began to dwindle to nothing as our the differences in political views began to be revealed as enormous. As in insurmountable.

[DCKit]

3. "...enough carbon into the atmosphere to fuel 3.4 million car trips to the moon..."

Does anyone else find that subtly hysterical?

K&R for the more accurate/logical bits.