Skip to content

Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research

Read our Science Bulletin
Project • CRRP2016-01MY-Park

Water Pollution Impacts on Carbon Export and Greenhouse Gas Evasion from Asian River Systems

River systems provide ecosystem services crucial for sustaining rapidly expanding population centers in across Asia. Despite far-reaching environmental impacts, human-induced perturbations such as water pollution have rarely been linked to carbon (C) export and greenhouse gas (GHGs) evasion from Asian rivers. The proposed research aims to build a research network on C fluxes through Asian river systems to assess water pollution impacts on Asian rivers as a C source. The project will take a unique approach combining review and synthesis workshops and exploratory field studies. Each year a workshop will be held in a regional hub – Yellow River (East Asia), Mekong River (Southeast), and Ganges-Brahmaputra (South) – to synthesize long-term data available from local sources and to conduct a field trip and follow-up samplings. Standardized protocols for monitoring riverine C fluxes will be disseminated among project members and research communities via workshop sessions and dedicated web pages. Long-term data from local sources and new data from field studies will be integrated into regional-scale syntheses of riverine C fluxes and water quality to provide the first regional assessment of water pollution impacts on Asian rivers as a source of C to the atmosphere and recommendations for water management options integrating water quality and GHG emissions.

Project publications

Peer-reviewed publication • 2023

Sources, supply, and seasonality of total suspended matter and associated organic carbon and total nitrogen in three large Asian rivers—Ganges, Mekong, and Yellow

Peer-reviewed publication • 2022

Seasonal shifts in diurnal variations of pCO2 and O2 in the lower Ganges River

Peer-reviewed publication • 2021

Improving Carbonate Equilibria-Based Estimation of pCO2 in Anthropogenically Impacted River Systems

Peer-reviewed publication • 2021

Reassessing riverine carbon dioxide emissions from the Indian subcontinent

Peer-reviewed publication • 2021

Wastewater-boosted biodegradation amplifying seasonal variations of pCO2 in the Mekong–Tonle Sap river system

Peer-reviewed publication • 2021

Localized Pollution Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Dynamics in Three Anthropogenically Modified Asian River Systems

Peer-reviewed publication • 2019

The post-monsoon carbon biogeochemistry of the Hooghly–Sundarbans estuarine system under different levels of anthropogenic impacts

Peer-reviewed publication • 2019

Comparing effects of untreated and treated wastewater on riverine greenhouse gas emissions

Peer-reviewed publication • 2019

Export fluxes of dissolved inorganic carbon to the northern Indian Ocean from the Indian monsoonal rivers

Peer-reviewed publication • 2019

Physically controlled CO 2 effluxes from a reservoir surface in the upper Mekong River Basin: a case study in the Gongguoqiao Reservoir

Peer-reviewed publication • 2019

Gas transfer velocities of CO 2 in subtropical monsoonal climate streams and small rivers

Peer-reviewed publication • 2018

Longitudinal discontinuities in riverine greenhouse gas dynamics generated by dams and urban wastewater

Peer-reviewed publication • 2018

CO 2 partial pressure and CO 2 emission along the lower Red River (Vietnam)

Peer-reviewed publication • 2018

Reviews and syntheses: Anthropogenic perturbations to carbon fluxes in Asian river systems-concepts, emerging trends, and research challenges

Peer-reviewed publication • 2018

Riverine carbon export in the arid to semiarid Wuding River catchment on the Chinese Loess Plateau

Presentation • 2018

Longitudinal Discontinuities in Riverine CO2 Dynamics in Urbanizing Asian River Systems