Carbon dioxide dynamics in a lake and a reservoir on a tropical island (Bali, Indonesia)

PLoS One. 2018 Jun 11;13(6):e0198678. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0198678. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Water-to-air carbon dioxide fluxes from tropical lakes and reservoirs (artificial lakes) may be an important but understudied component of global carbon fluxes. Here, we investigate the seasonal dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) dynamics in a lake and a reservoir on a tropical volcanic island (Bali, Indonesia). Observations were performed over four seasonal surveys in Bali's largest natural lake (Lake Batur) and largest reservoir (Palasari Reservoir). Average CO2 partial pressures in the natural lake and reservoir were 263.7±12.2 μatm and 785.0±283.6 μatm respectively, with the highest area-weighted partial pressures in the wet season for both systems. The strong correlations between seasonal mean values of dissolved oxygen (DO) and pCO2 in the natural lake (r2 = 0.92) suggest that surface water metabolism was an important driver of CO2 dynamics in this deep system. Radon (222Rn, a natural groundwater discharge tracer) explained up to 77% of the variability in pCO2 in the shallow reservoir, suggesting that groundwater seepage was the major CO2 driver in the reservoir. Overall, the natural lake was a sink of atmospheric CO2 (average fluxes of -2.8 mmol m-2 d-1) while the reservoir was a source of CO2 to the atmosphere (average fluxes of 7.3 mmol m-2 d-1). Reservoirs are replacing river valleys and terrestrial ecosystems, particularly throughout developing tropical regions. While the net effect of this conversion on atmospheric CO2 fluxes remains to be resolved, we speculate that reservoir construction will partially offset the CO2 sink provided by deep, volcanic, natural lakes and terrestrial environments.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Cycle*
  • Carbon Dioxide / metabolism*
  • Indonesia
  • Islands
  • Lakes / chemistry*
  • Oxygen / chemistry
  • Seasons
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Oxygen

Grants and funding

Paul Anthony Macklin was supported by the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. We acknowledge funding support from the Australian Research Council (DE140101733, DE150100581, and LE120100156) that partially funded IRS and DTM salaries and the portable analytical instrumentation.