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Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from small inland waters are disproportionately large. Climate warming is expected to favor dominance of algae and free-floating plants at the expense of submerged plants. Through different routes these functional plant types may have far-reaching impacts on freshwater GHG emissions in future warmer waters, which are yet unknown. We conducted a 1,000 L mesocosm experiment testing the effects of plant type and warming on GHG emissions from temperate inland waters dominated by either algae, free-floating or submerged plants in controls and warmed (+4 °C) treatments for one year each. Our results show that the effect of experimental warming on GHG fluxes differs between dominance of different functional plant types, mainly by modulating methane ebullition, an often-dominant GHG emission pathway. Specifically, we demonstrate that the response to experimental warming was strongest for free-floating and lowest for submerged plant-dominated systems. Importantly, our results suggest that anticipated shifts in plant type from submerged plants to a dominance of algae or free-floating plants with warming may increase total GHG emissions from shallow waters. This, together with a warming-induced emission response, represents a so far overlooked positive climate feedback. Management strategies aimed at favouring submerged plant dominance may thus substantially mitigate GHG emissions.

Small pelagic fishes constituted half of the Mediterranean landings and a considerable portion of the Lebanese catches. In this study, the purse seine fishery was analyzed between 2006 and 2007 in two sites along the northern coast of Lebanon.Thirty-six different fish species were collected, out of which seven constituted morethan 97% of the landings. Engraulis encrasicolus, Sardinella aurita and Sardinapilchardus composed 57.7%, 20.9% and 5.6% of the abundance of catches respectively and 31.3%, 19.2%, 9.2% of its biomass. Non-indigenous species comprised 7.2% of the total abundance and 18.7 % of the landing biomass. The fishery targeted mainly the new recruits (0+), and the vast majority of the catches were fishes below their size at first maturity. Diversity and species richness were high in the warmer in the months and low in the colder ones. Temperature and salinity were positively correlated with species richness, while the chlorophyll content of seawater was positively associated with diversity. Clear temporal patterns with distinct shifts of dominance within the landings were detected throughout the year for the most common species. Engraulids dominated catches from October to March, while the rest of the year was characterized by clupeids, Boops boops, and Scomber colias. A temporal niche partitioning seems to exist in the easternmost Mediterranean pelagic waters, possibly to minimize competition.

Methane (CH4) strongly contributes to observed global warming. As natural CH4 emissions mainly originate from wet ecosystems, it is important to unravel how climate change may affect these emissions. This is especially true for ebullition (bubble flux from sediments), a pathway that has long been underestimated but generally dominates emissions. Here we show a remarkably strong relationship between CH4 ebullition and temperature across a wide range of freshwater ecosystems on different continents using multi-seasonal CH4 ebullition data from the literature. As these temperature–ebullition relationships may have been affected by seasonal variation in organic matter availability, we also conducted a controlled year-round mesocosm experiment. Here 4 °C warming led to 51% higher total annual CH4 ebullition, while diffusion was not affected. Our combined findings suggest that global warming will strongly enhance freshwater CH4 emissions through a disproportional increase in ebullition (6–20% per 1 °C increase), contributing to global warming., The impacts of climate change on natural methane (CH4) emissions via ebullition are unclear. Here, using published and experimental multi-seasonal CH4 ebullition data, the authors find a strong relationship between CH4 ebullition and temperature across a wide range of freshwater ecosystems globally.

Contains fulltext : 195210.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Abstract Temperatures have been rising throughout recent decades and are predicted to rise further in the coming century. Global warming affects carbon cycling in freshwater ecosystems, which both emit and bury substantial amounts of carbon on a global scale. Currently, most studies focus on the effect of warming on overall carbon emissions from freshwater ecosystems, while net effects on carbon budgets may strongly depend on burial in sediments. Here, we tested whether year-round warming increases the production, sedimentation, or decomposition of particulate organic carbon and eventually alters the carbon burial in a typical shallow freshwater system. We performed an indoor experiment in eight mesocosms dominated by the common submerged aquatic plant Myriophyllum spicatum testing two temperature treatments: a temperate seasonal temperature control and a warmed (+4°C) treatment (n = 4). During a full experimental year, the carbon stock in plant biomass, dissolved organic carbon in the water column, sedimented organic matter, and decomposition of plant detritus were measured. Our results showed that year-round warming nearly doubled the final carbon stock in plant biomass from 6.9 ± 1.1 g C in the control treatment to 12.8 ± 0.6 g C (mean ± SE), mainly due to a prolonged growing season in autumn. DOC concentrations did not differ between the treatments, but organic carbon sedimentation increased by 60% from 96 ± 9.6 to 152 ± 16 g C m?2 yaer?1 (mean ± SE) from control to warm treatments. Enhanced decomposition of plant detritus in the warm treatment, however, compensated for the increased sedimentation. As a result, net carbon burial was 40 ± 5.7 g C m?2 year?1 in both temperature treatments when fluxes were combined into a carbon budget model. These results indicate that warming can increase the turnover of organic carbon in shallow macrophyte-dominated systems, while not necessarily affecting net carbon burial on a system scale.

Kettle holes are often abundant within agriculturally used moraine landscapes. They are highly enriched with nutrients and considered hotspots of carbon turnover. However, data on their primary productivity remain rare. We analysed two kettle holes typical to Germany with common aquatic plant communities during one year. We hypothesised that gross primary production (GPP) rates would be high compared to other temperate freshwater ecosystems, leading to high sediment deposition. Summer GPP rates (4.5–5.1 g C m−2 day−1) were higher than those of most temperate freshwater systems, but GPP rates were reduced by 90% in winter. Macrophytes dominated GPP from May to September with emergent macrophytes accounting for half of the GPP. Periphyton contributed to most of the system GPP throughout the rest of the year. Sediment deposition rates were high and correlated with GPP in one kettle hole. In contrast, due to prolonged periods of anoxia, aerobic sediment mineralisation was low while sediment phosphorus release was significant. Our results suggest that kettle holes have a high potential for carbon burial, provided they do not fully dry up during warm years. Due to their unique features, they should not be automatically grouped with ponds and shallow lakes in global carbon budget estimates.