Terrestrial and fluvial carbon fluxes in a tropical watershed: Nyong basin, Cameroon

Abstract

The Nyong watershed, with an area of 27 800 km2 and a mean annual discharge of 390 m3 s−1, is the second largest river in Cameroon. The Nyong watershed serves as an outstanding study area for the examination of carbon fluxes in humid tropical environments because of its limited anthropogenic impact and homogeneous silicate bedrock. Between April 2005 and April 2007, we sampled water at seven stations, from the small watershed of the Mengong (0.6 km2) to the Nyong at Edea (24 500 km2), and monitored temperature, pH, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) contents, as well as the isotopic composition of DIC (δ13CDIC)andDOC(δ13CDOC).We estimated terrestrial net ecosystemproductivity in theNyong River watershed and measured fluvial fluxes of carbon to the ocean and the atmosphere. The Nyong River basin sequesters significant amounts of carbon on an annual basis: ~7 920 000t C year−1 (300 g C m−2 year−1). The combined dissolved organic, dissolved inorganic and atmospheric fluxes of carbon from the Nyong River only export 3% of this flux fromthe basin on an annual basis. This includes a minimumCO2 outgassing of 1487 g Cm−2 year−1, comparable to 115% of the annual flux of DOC and four times greater than the flux of DIC.