Image

Of Carbon and Rivers

June 22, 2015

Scientists involved in the Global Rivers Observatory are studying Earth’s major river systems to understand what they transport to the ocean and how river chemistry reflects environmental change in their respective watersheds (shown here). Rivers carry fresh water, as well as carbon-rich rock and plant matter and so are important parts of the global carbon cycle. Recently, WHOI geochemists Valier Galy and Bernhard Peucker-Ehrenbrink, with Timothy Eglinton (ETH Zurich), used data from rivers around the globe to make the first direct estimate of the amount of organic carbon derived from plants, versus rocks, that rivers carry to the sea.(Illustration by Amy Caracappa-Qubeck, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)