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Inland waters release substantial amounts of greenhouse gases, but this is rarely included in climate assessments. New research from Umeå University shows that not accounting for carbon fluxes between land and water systems leads to incorrect assessments of climate impact and feedback on the carbon cycle.

Cold regions in the north and at high elevation are experiencing rapid warming—up to four times faster than the global average. This phenomenon not only threatens the status of these ecosystems but also leads to the release of vast amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

However, assessments of how the carbon cycle responds to and feeds back on climate change generally focus on the exchange of greenhouse gases on land, neglecting the large carbon export from land to the abundant inland waters (streams, rivers, and lakes) in these regions.

"Current data and approaches are likely inadequate to capture contemporary and future carbon flows across land and water systems," says Jan Karlsson, Professor at the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Umeå University.

Emissions from 3,000 lakes

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