LTER Intersite CO2 Workshop

All sites were supersaturated with CO₂ on an annual basis and, therefore, surface waters were acting as sources of CO₂ to the atmosphere

An LTER Intersite CO₂Workshop, Carbon Dynamics in Aquatic Ecosystems: Continental-Scale Patterns and Landscape-Scale Processes, was held at the University of Wisconsin Trout Lake Station (North Temperate Lakes, NTL LTER) on February 4-6, 1994. The workshop, organized by George Kling (Arctic Tundra, ARC), Tim Kratz (NTL), Jon Cole and Nida Caraco (Hubbard Brook, HBR), brought together 26 Scientists representing seven LTER sites (ARC, BNZ, CWT, HBR, LUQ NTL, SEV), five countries (United States, Canada, Scotland, Germany, Israel), and two federal agencies (National Biological Survey, U.S. Geological Survey) to discuss continental scale patterns in the role of surface waters in landscape-scale carbon dynamics.

The workshop was an extension of discussions held at the September 1993 LTER All Scientists Meeting, and is part of an overall program that includes a summer field data collection program at sites worldwide and a final workshop to be held at Woods Hole in fall 1994. The CO₂ project has three major objectives:

• Identify the continental-scale patterns in CO₂ saturation and compare the relative importance of terrestrial carbon inputs to lakes and streams in arctic, temperate and sub-tropical environments.
• Begin to determine at the landscape scale how specific processes, such as hydrologic inputs or carbon uptake by primary producers, relate to observed variation of CO₂ saturation in neighboring or interconnected lakes and streams.
• Evaluate, using long-term data records of CO₂ saturation, the magnitude of change over time in the relative importance of land-water linkages.

One interesting result from the workshop was the observation that although there was tremendous variation in the CO₂ concentration in surface waters across sites, all sites were supersaturated with CO₂ on an annual basis and, therefore, surface waters were acting as sources of CO₂ to the atmosphere.

A group e-mail list called CO₂ has been established on LTERnet. To be added to the list, send a message to CO₂ - request@LTERnet.edu or contact Daniel Poinmert at the Network Office, 206-543-1135. All interested sites are invited to participate in the project. For more information. Tim Katz, Center for Limnology, Trout Lake Station, 10810 County Highway N, Boulder Junction WI 54512, 715-356-9494, tKratz@LTERnet.edu.