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Satellite-Derived Particulate Organic Carbon Flux in the Changjiang River Through Different Stages of the Three Gorges

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Satellite-Derived Particulate Organic Carbon Flux in the Changjiang River Through Different Stages of the Three Gorges Remote Sensing of Environment 223 (2019) 154–165 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Remote Sensing of Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rse Satellite-derived particulate organic carbon flux in the Changjiang River through different stages of the Three Gorges Dam T ⁎ Dong Liua,b, Yan Baib,e, , Xianqiang Heb,e, Delu Panb, Chen-Tung Arthur Chenc, Teng Lib,YiXud, Chaohai Gongd, Lin Zhangb a Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China b State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hangzhou 310012, China c Department of Oceanography, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan d Lower Changjiang River Bureau of Hydrological and Water Resources Survey, Nanjing 210011, China e Institute of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: As the largest Asian river and fourth world's largest river by water flow, the Changjiang River transports a Particulate organic carbon considerable amount of terrigenous particulate organic carbon (POC) into ocean, which has experienced sig- Changjiang River nificant pressure from human activities. We conducted monthly sampling (from May 2015 to May 2016) at Three Gorges Dam Datong, the most downstream non-tidal hydrological station along the Changjiang River. To monitor long-term Landsat data POC variations, we developed a two-step POC algorithm for Landsat satellite data and calculated monthly POC Bio-optical model flux during 2000–2016. Monthly POC flux ranged from a minimum of 1.4 × 104 t C in February 2016 to a maximum of 52.04 × 104 t C in May 2002, with a mean of 13.04 × 104 t C/month. At Datong, monthly POC flux was positively exponentially related to water flow (N = 118, R = 0.69, p < 0.01). In the wet season (May to October) with high water flow, a large amount of terrigenous POC was flushed into the Changjiang River. After the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), both POC concentration (R = 0.46, p < 0.01) and POC flux (R = 0.33, p < 0.01) significantly exponentially decreased during 2000–2016. After 2011 with regular operation of the TGD, POC transport at Datong showed relative stability and its seasonal difference became smaller. POC concentration from the TGD to Datong in the Changjiang mainstream (~1000 km) was also derived from Landsat data, which was spatially varied with water flow, slope gradient, and watercourse width. This study improved our under- standing of the spatiotemporal variations of POC transport in the Changjiang mainstream, especially the in- fluences of the TGD construction. 1. Introduction 2012). With wide spatial coverage and high temporal repeatability, satellite remote sensing is ideal and necessary for retrieving dynamic Rivers play crucial roles in connecting land and ocean ecosystems, riverine POC concentration. the two largest active carbon pools in global carbon cycle (Siegenthaler As the largest Asian river according to annual water flow, the and Sarmiento, 1993; Wang et al., 2012). On a global scale, rivers de- Changjiang River exports a great deal of terrigenous POC into the East liver approximately 2.0 × 108 t C/yr of particulate organic carbon China Sea (ECS) every year (Duan et al., 2008; Liu et al., 2014; Wang (POC) into marginal seas (Wang et al., 2012). After coastal transfor- et al., 2012). Over the past several decades, moreover, sediment yield in mation and oxidation consumption, the remaining riverine POC is the Changjiang watershed has been markedly influenced by extensive buried in estuarine and/or coastal sediments, constituting a significant human activities, the construction of Three Gorges Dam (TGD) for ex- carbon sink (Bianchi and Allison, 2009; Saliot et al., 2002; Wollast, ample (Wang et al., 2009; Yang et al., 2006, 2007). In November 1997, 1991). Regarding on global riverine POC flux, 23.74% was transported the Changjiang River was intercepted for TGD construction. On 1 June by Asian rivers (Seitzinger et al., 2005). Asian rivers are usually char- 2003, the TGD began impoundment. Water level reached 135 m on 10 acterized by seasonally varied POC concentration, with high values in June 2003, 156 m on October 2006, and 175 m by the end of October large water flow seasons (Liu et al., 2015a; Ran et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2010, respectively (Zhang et al., 2014). When at 175 m, water storage is ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Bai). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.01.012 Received 4 June 2018; Received in revised form 5 January 2019; Accepted 10 January 2019 Available online 24 January 2019 0034-4257/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. D. Liu et al. Remote Sensing of Environment 223 (2019) 154–165 about 3.93 × 1011 m3 and catchment area is about 1.08 × 106 km2 north and 20 m in the south (Fig. 1c). Rivers upstream of Datong drain (http://news.xinhuanet.com/). 94.3% of the total basin area and account for > 95% of water and se- The TGD has reportedly changed material transport of the diment transports in the whole basin (Duan et al., 2008). Changjiang River, leading to ecological changes in the ECS (Bai et al., 2014, 2015; Feng et al., 2014). Xu and Milliman (2009) reported that 3. Materials and data processing the TGD trapped about 60% of upstream input sediment during 2003–2006. After 2003, the Changjiang River has entered a phase with 3.1. TSM, POC, and other in-situ data sediment flux at Datong hydrological station < 200 mt/yr, compared with average value of ~340 mt/yr during 1986–2002 (Yang et al., In-situ sampling was conducted in the middle of each month from 2006). As part of the suspended sediment, POC transport has also been May 2015 to May 2016, using hydrographic survey vessel, China (No. reduced by the TGD (Wu et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2014). Based on 138). At each station of P1, P2, and P3 (Fig. 1b), waters at three depths biweekly measurements in Changjiang River estuary (CRE) from 2003 (surface, middle, and bottom) were collected using a Niskin sampler to 2011, Wu et al. (2016) reported that a sharp decrease of POC flux (General Oceanics Inc. USA) within about 15 min. When collecting was observed, especially in the wet season. However, long-term mon- water, the sampler was fixed at 0.5 m to the water surface, half the itoring is still mandatory for assessing POC changes in the Changjiang water depth, and 0.5 m to the water bottom, respectively (Fig. 1c). In River through different stages of the TGD. each month, surface waters were also collected at station P4 several With low cost and labor-consuming, satellite remote sensing is a hours before and/or after the Datong section sampling (Fig. 1b). good alternative tool to explore long-term riverine POC variations. Water was filtered through pre-combusted GF/F membrane Many remote sensing algorithms had been developed for oceanic POC (Whatman, UK, 0.7 μm pore size and Φ47 mm) and pre-weighed cellu- closely related to phytoplankton density (Stramska, 2009; Stramski lose acetate membrane (Sartorius, Germany, 0.45 μm pore size and et al., 1999, 2008), but they were not applicable to riverine POC pri- Φ47 mm) to obtain POC and TSM samples, respectively. All samples marily sourced from watershed soil (Liu et al., 2015a; Wang et al., were stored in a refrigerator ( −18 °C) until laboratory measurement. 2012). In addition, with usual spatial resolution of ~1 km, commonly POC content was determined using high temperature combustion used ocean color data is too coarse to be applied to rivers with widths of method (680 °C) by referring to the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study only several kilometers at most. Alternatively, long-term Landsat sa- (JGOFS) protocols (Knap et al., 1994). As Strickland and Parsons tellite data with a resolution of 30 m was a good choice and had been (1972), TSM content was determined gravimetrically, with a precision frequently used to derive turbidity (Joshi et al., 2017b), total suspended of 0.01 mg. In total, we collected 141 TSM samples and 141 POC matter (TSM) (Islam et al., 2001, 2002; Lymburner et al., 2016; Wang samples (Table 1). et al., 2009), dissolved organic matter (Griffin et al., 2011; Joshi et al., The published in-situ POC and TSM by Wang et al. (2012) were also 2017a; Kutser et al., 2016), etc. in riverine or coastal small waters. used to supplement our in-situ dataset for following analysis. Wang However, due to limited in-situ POC measurement, a 16-day revisit et al. (2012) monthly collected surface, middle, and bottom waters in period for Landsat satellite, and locally dependent relationships be- the central mainstream at Datong in 2009, and mixed them at a 2:1:1 tween POC and TSM (Gao et al., 2002; Ran et al., 2013; Zhang et al., volume ratio. By following JGOFS (Knap et al., 1994), waters were also 2014), etc., few studies about monitoring riverine POC had been re- filtered through pre-combusted GF/F filters to obtain POC samples and ported. These also lead to the importance of validation work and the POC content was determined using a Perkin-Elmer 2400 CHNS Analyzer limited matchup data when using Landsat data. (USA) with an analytical precision of ± 4%. For TSM, Wang et al. To monitor dynamic POC in the Changjiang River from space and (2012) used values by oven drying method from the Ministry of Water determine POC variations after the TGD, we conducted one-year sam- Resources of China (MWRC). pling (May 2015 to May 2016) in each month at Datong, the most In addition to POC and TSM, we also collected Chl-a, colored dis- downstream non-tidal hydrological station.
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