The carbon footprint of a Malaysian tropical reservoir: measured versus modelled estimates highlight the underestimated key role of downstream processes

Soued, Cynthia; Prairie, Yves T.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-515-2020

Articles | Volume 17, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-515-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-515-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 2

Research article

|

31 Jan 2020

Research article |

| 31 Jan 2020

The carbon footprint of a Malaysian tropical reservoir: measured versus modelled estimates highlight the underestimated key role of downstream processes

Cynthia Soued and Yves T. Prairie

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-515-2020-supplement

Data sets

Carbon dioxide, methane, and chemical data from Batang Ai reservoir (Version 1.0.0) C. Soued and Y. Prairie https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3629898

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Short summary

Freshwater reservoirs emit greenhouse gases (GHGs) due to organic matter decay after landscape flooding. In order to better understand this phenomenon, we performed a comprehensive carbon footprint assessment of a tropical reservoir. Contrary to predictions, 89 % of measured emissions occurred downstream of the dam. Comparing predicted vs. measured emissions revealed weaknesses in our current modeling framework and insights to improve our ability to quantify and reduce reservoir GHG emissions.