To examine the circumstances under which CDOM reflects DOC concentration, Spencer et al. measured CDOM and DOC concentrations in water collected from 30 rivers across the United States; the rivers represent a wide range of climate, watershed environments, ecosystems, and anthropogenic influence. Overall, the authors find that the CDOM level reflects the DOC concentration in the river water, except in four large rivers, namely, the Colorado, Columbia, Rio Grande, and St. Lawrence rivers.
These four rivers either drain from the Great Lakes or have significant restrictions within their watersheds such as dam building and other similar modifications. These activities result in long residence times of water, which may increase phytoplankton production, the relative contribution from human sources, or degradation of land-derived material by photochemical processes. As a result, there may have been a decoupling of CDOM from DOC, i.e., the amount of CDOM in these four rivers may have decreased without a concomitant decrease in DOC content. On the basis of their findings, the authors suggest that CDOM measurements in rivers are a useful way to investigate water quality and to monitor delivery of DOC into coastal regions as ecosystems respond to human activity and changes in climate in the near future.
Source:
Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, doi:10.1029/2011JG001928, 2012
http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011JG001928
Title: Dissolved organic carbon and chromophoric dissolved organic matter properties of rivers in the USA
Authors: Robert G. M. Spencer: Global Rivers Group, Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Massachusetts, USA;
Kenna D. Butler and George R. Aiken: United States Geological Survey, Boulder, Colorado, USA.
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