Jun 16, 2025 05:25 PM
https://thedebrief.org/ancient-carbon-is...ge-models/
EXCERPTS: A new international study has upended a foundational assumption in climate science, revealing that rivers are not just conduits for the rapid cycling of carbon from plants and soils, but are also major escape routes for ancient carbon stores that have been locked away for centuries, millennia, or even longer.
Published in Nature, the findings show that more than half of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) emitted from rivers worldwide originates from long-term carbon reservoirs—deep soils, sediments, and even weathered rocks—rather than from the recent decay of plant material as previously believed.
[....] This hidden flux is not trivial. The study estimates that rivers globally emit about 2 gigatons (2 billion metric tons) of carbon each year as CO₂ and CH₄. Of that, approximately 1.2 gigatons comes from these ancient sources. That amount is comparable to the net carbon uptake by all the world’s land ecosystems annually. In other words, the “leak” of old carbon through rivers is large enough to require a major revision of global carbon budgets and models.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Josh Dean, described the findings as “potentially huge” in their implications... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: A new international study has upended a foundational assumption in climate science, revealing that rivers are not just conduits for the rapid cycling of carbon from plants and soils, but are also major escape routes for ancient carbon stores that have been locked away for centuries, millennia, or even longer.
Published in Nature, the findings show that more than half of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) emitted from rivers worldwide originates from long-term carbon reservoirs—deep soils, sediments, and even weathered rocks—rather than from the recent decay of plant material as previously believed.
[....] This hidden flux is not trivial. The study estimates that rivers globally emit about 2 gigatons (2 billion metric tons) of carbon each year as CO₂ and CH₄. Of that, approximately 1.2 gigatons comes from these ancient sources. That amount is comparable to the net carbon uptake by all the world’s land ecosystems annually. In other words, the “leak” of old carbon through rivers is large enough to require a major revision of global carbon budgets and models.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Josh Dean, described the findings as “potentially huge” in their implications... (MORE - missing details)