HR: 10:35h
AN: B52C-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Estimating Global Methane Emissions From Reservoirs
AU: * Cullenward, D
EM: dcullenward@gmail.com
AF: Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford University, Encina Hall East, 4th Floor, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
AB: No major scientific body has quantified the impacts of methane release from man-made reservoirs, despite an emerging consensus on the scale of the problem. Published estimates, based on varied assumptions, range from 20 to 120 million tons per year. For comparison, natural and anthropogenic emissions are thought to total 500 million tons per year, excluding reservoirs. This paper will examine the two key uncertainties in global estimation: first, the methodological accounting of individual reservoir emissions, and second, the distribution and extent of reservoir types. On the first question, political and scientific debate has mired progress in the published literature, although the evidence in the field is moving towards resolution on which parts of reservoirs are responsible for the majority of emissions, and the techniques needed to measure them. On the second question, data availability is a limitation. Tropical reservoirs with fast-cycling organic carbon have the highest potential for large emissions profiles. Temperate reservoirs in arid climates are less likely to have sizeable emissions. At present, no coupled database of reservoirs and data on local ecosystems and climatic conditions exists. A coordinated effort to collect this information and validate regional emissions estimates with targeted field studies would improve the quality of global estimates.
DE: 0414 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0793, 1615, 4805, 4912)
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting