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Published (Version of record)CC BY V3.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY V3.0, Open
Journal article
Historic carbon burial spike in an Amazon floodplain lake linked to riparian deforestation near Santarém, Brazil
Biogeosciences, Vol.15(2), pp.447-455
22/01/2018
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Abstract
Forests along the Amazon Basin produce significant quantities of organic material, a portion of which is deposited in floodplain lakes. Deforestation in the watershed may then have potentially important effects on the carbon fluxes. In this study, a sediment core was extracted from an Amazon floodplain lake to examine the relationship between carbon burial and changing land cover and land use. Historical records from the 1930s and satellite data from the 1970s were used to calculate deforestation rates between 1930 to 1970 and 1970 to 2010 in four zones with different distances from the margins of the lake and its tributaries (100, 500, 1000 and 6000 m buffers). A sediment accumulation rate of ∼4 mm yr−1 for the previous ∼120 years was determined from the 240+239Pu signatures and the excess 210Pb method. The carbon burial rates ranged between 85 and 298 gCm−2yr−1, with pulses of high carbon burial in the 1950s, originating from the forest vegetation as indicated by δ13C and δ15N signatures. Our results revealed a potentially important spatial dependence of the organic carbon (OC) burial in Amazon lacustrine sediments in relation to deforestation rates in the catchment. These deforestation rates were more intense in the riparian vegetation (100 m buffer) during the period 1930 to 1970 and the larger open water areas (500, 1000 and 6000 m buffer) during 1970 to 2010. The continued removal of vegetation from the interior of the forest was not related to the peak of OC burial in the lake, but only the riparian deforestation which peaked during the 1950s. Therefore, this supports the conservation priority of riparian forests as an important management practice for Amazon flooded areas. Our findings suggest the importance of abrupt and temporary events in which some of the biomass released by deforestation, especially restricted to areas along open water edges, might reach the depositional environments in the floodplain of the Amazon Basin.
Details
- Title
- Historic carbon burial spike in an Amazon floodplain lake linked to riparian deforestation near Santarém, Brazil
- Creators
- Luciana M Sanders - Southern Cross UniversityKathryn Taffs - Southern Cross UniversityDebra J Stokes - Southern Cross UniversityChristian J Sanders - Southern Cross UniversityAlex Enrich-Prast - Universidade Federal do Rio de JaneiroLeonardo Amora-Nogueira - Universidade Federal FluminenseHumberto Marotta - Universidade Federal Fluminense
- Publication Details
- Biogeosciences, Vol.15(2), pp.447-455
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Grant note
- Luciana M. Sanders is supported by APA and IPRS scholarships. Humberto Marotta and Alex Enrich-Prast received research grants from the Brazilian Research Council (CNPq – “Programa Universal” and “Bolsa de Produtividade”) and the Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ – “Programa Jovem Cientista do Nosso Estado”). Christian J. Sanders is supported by the Australian Research Council (DE160100443).
- Identifiers
- 4612; 991012820771702368
- Copyright
- © Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
- Academic Unit
- Southern Cross GeoScience; Science; National Centre for Flood Research; Centre for Coastal Biogeochemistry; National Marine Science Centre; School of Environment, Science and Engineering; Faculty of Science and Engineering; Marine Ecology Research Centre
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article