WAL-H2O-GHG
WAL-H2O-GHG (Green-house gases emissions from inland waters in Wallonia) is a WISD FRS-FNRS funded project (PDR, 2017-2020)
Inland waters (rivers, lakes, reservoirs) have recently been shown to be highly significant components of the global cycles of green-house gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) due to emission to atmosphere with flux intensities that are disproportionately higher than their respective surface area. Inland waters can been considered as conduits for carbon emissions from the terrestrial biosphere on the catchment. Hence, not accounting for the GHG emissions from inland waters leads to an incomplete and incorrect accounting of the terrestrial carbon sink (terrestrial net ecosystem production).
The overwhelming majority of research on GHGs emissions from inland waters has been carried out in near-pristine watersheds in high latitudes (e.g. Canada and Scandinavia) and tropics (e.g. South American rivers), and little is known on the GHGs emissions from inland waters in human impacted watersheds.
Our working hypothesis is that GHG emissions from inland waters will be strongly affected by human activities on the watersheds, and will be distinctly different according to land-use, in particular with regards to agriculture. The overarching goal of the research is to quantify the emissions of GHGs from inland waters in Wallonia (rivers, lakes and pit-stone lakes), and relate them to land use on the watershed, in particular distinguishing forested and agricultural watersheds. The new field data will contextualised and investigated used available data-bases from the Région Wallonne such as land use cover or water chemical data.
The GHGs emission estimates from water bodies will contribute to budget GHGs sinks and sources at regional (Walloon) and national (Belgian) levels. The GHGs emission estimates from water bodies will be compared with estimates of land-atmosphere GHGs exchanges derived from literature and/or from other Belgian observatories from the Integrated Carbon Observing System (ICOS) network.
