Inland Water Greenhouse Gas Budgets for RECCAP2: 2. Regionalization and Homogenization of Estimates

Inland waters are important sources of the greenhouse gasses (GHGs) carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) to the atmosphere. In the framework of the second phase of the REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes (RECCAP-2) initiative, we synthesize existing estimates of GHG emissions from streams, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and homogenize them with regard to underlying global maps of water surface area distribution and the effects of seasonal ice cover. We then produce regionalized estimates of GHG emissions over 10 extensive land regions. According to our synthesis, inland water GHG emissions have a global warming potential of an equivalent emission of 13.5 (9.9–20.1) and 8.3 (5.7–12.7) Pg CO₂-eq. yr⁻¹ at a 20 and 100 years horizon (GWP₂₀ and GWP₁₀₀), respectively. Contributions of CO₂ dominate GWP₁₀₀, with rivers being the largest emitter. For GWP₂₀, lakes and rivers are equally important emitters, and the warming potential of CH₄ is more important than that of CO₂. Contributions from N₂O are about two orders of magnitude lower. Normalized to the area of RECCAP-2 regions, S-America and SE-Asia show the highest emission rates, dominated by riverine CO₂ emissions.