Mark Easter is a respected Ecologist & Greenhouse Gas Accountant based in Colorado. Below is his summary of seventeen identified emissions source and sub source categories, by EPA GHG inventory sector, with an indication whether generalizable emissions models currently exist that can be utilized either in GHG inventories or life cycle assessments or other analyses that assess scope 1, 2, or 3 emissions:
Table 1. Greenhouse gas emissions sources and sub sources from Reservoir Systems.
| Emissions
Sector |
Emissions source category | Emissions sub source categories | Do generally applicable
emissions models exist? |
Yearly or one
time emissions? |
Citations |
| Industrial
Processes |
Mineral Products | CO2 from
Cement Production |
yes | One-time at
beginning of life cycle. |
1 |
| Energy | Fossil Fuel
Combustion for Mining and Dam Construction |
CO2 | yes | One-time at
beginning of life cycle. |
5 |
| Energy | Fossil Fuel for Dam and Reservoir
Operations |
CO2 | yes | Yearly over the life cycle until dam
removal and remediation. |
5 |
1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 2021. Inventory of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks 1990-2019. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/documents/us-ghg inventory-2021-main-text.pdf?VersionId=yu89kg1O2qP754CdR8Qmyn4RRWc5iodZ, viewed on 16 November 2021.
| Emissions
Sector |
Emissions source category | Emissions sub source categories | Do generally applicable
emissions models exist? |
Yearly or one
time emissions? |
Citations |
| Energy | Biogenic emissions from hydropower turbines | CH4 | no | Yearly over the life cycle until dam
removal and remediation. |
2 3 4 5 6 |
| Land Use
and Forestry |
Surface Emissions from Lakes and
Reservoirs |
CO2, CH4,
N2O |
yes | Yearly over the life cycle until dam
removal and remediation. |
7 8 |
| Land Use
and Forestry |
Wetlands and
Riparian Forest Degradation |
CO2, CH4,
N2O |
no | Yearly over the
first several decades after dam construction. |
12 |
2 Fearnside, P. (1995). Hydroelectric Dams in the Brazilian Amazon as Sources of ‘Greenhouse’ Gases. Environmental Conservation, 22(1), 7-19. doi:10.1017/S0376892900034020 3 Tremblay et al. (2005). Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Fluxes and Processes: Hydroelectric Reservoirs and Natural Environments. Germany: Springer, 2005.
https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783540234555
4 Gunkel, G. (2009), Hydropower – A Green Energy? Tropical Reservoirs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Clean Soil Air Water, 37: 726-734. https://doi.org/10.1002/clen.200900062 5 Teodoru, Cristian et al. (2012). The Net Carbon Footprint of a Newly Created Boreal Hydroelectric Reservoir, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, May 2012, at 1.
The net carbon footprint of a newly created boreal hydroelectric reservoir 6 Steinhurst, William, et al. (2012). Hydropower Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Synapse Energy Econ.. 12. https://www.synapse-energy.com/sites/default/files/SynapseReport.2012- 02.CLF+PEW.GHG-from-Hydro.10-056.pdf
7 Scherer, Laura & Stephan Pfister, (2016). Hydropower’s Biogenic Carbon Footprint, PLOS ONE, September 14, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161947
8 Deemer, Bridget R., John A. Harrison, Siyue Li, Jake J. Beaulieu, Tonya DelSontro, Nathan Barros, José F. Bezerra-Neto, Stephen M. Powers, Marco A. dos Santos, J. Arie Vonk, (2016). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Reservoir Water Surfaces: A New Global Synthesis, BioScience, Volume 66, Issue 11, 1 November 2016, Pages 949–964,
https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw117, viewed on 16 November 2016.
| Emissions
Sector |
Emissions source category | Emissions sub source categories | Do generally applicable
emissions models exist? |
Yearly or one
time emissions? |
Citations |
| Land Use
and Forestry |
Reservoir Banks | CO2, CH4
N2O |
no | Yearly over the life cycle until dam
removal and remediation. |
9 10 |
| Land Use
and Forestry |
Dam and Reservoir Decommissioning and Restoration | CO2, CH4,
N2O |
no | One-time after
dam removal and site restoration. |
11 12 |
| Land Use
and Forestry |
Loss of ecosystem function (carbon sequestration) | CO2 | no | One-time after
dam construction and inundation, and then potentially yearly over the life cycle until dam removal and remediation. |
5 |
As shown in the table above, only seven of these seventeen emissions sources have been quantified to the extent that generalized emissions models can be applied in a greenhouse gas inventory at the country level. The fact that emissions are dispersed across multiple sectors, and that many of the identified emissions have yet to be fully quantified, has created the impression that dams, reservoirs, and their associated land uses, which prominently includes hydropower, are low carbon or even zero-carbon enterprises. This perception is made even worse when the
9 Keller, P.S., Marcé, R., Obrador, B. et al. (2021) Global Carbon Budget of Reservoirs is Overturned by the Quantification of Drawdown Areas. Nat. Geosci.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00734-z, viewed on 16 November 2016. 10 Marcé, R. et al. (2019) Emissions from Dry Inland Waters are a Blind Spot in the Global Carbon Cycle. Earth Sci. Rev. 188, 240–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.11.012, viewed on 16 November 2016.
11 Hertwich EG.(2013). Addressing biogenic greenhouse gas emissions from hydropower in LCA. Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Sep 3;47(17):9604-11. doi: 10.1021/es401820p. 12 Song, C, K Gardner, S Klein, SP Souza, W Mo. 2018. Cradle to Grave Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Dams in the United States of America. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 90:945-956. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.04.014
magnitude of emissions are diluted or downplayed by attributing them to other co-occurring uses for reservoirs, such as recreation or flood control. When the emissions are examined in aggregate, however, the evidence clearly indicates that the emissions from dams and reservoirs are very high.
To illustrate the potential overall magnitude of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from dams and reservoirs (hereinafter referred to as “reservoir systems”), consider the emissions from one single source category – that of reservoir surfaces. Deemer et al. (2016, 2020) developed generalized greenhouse gas inventory emissions that may be applied to greenhouse gas inventories of reservoirs based on their trophic states (oligotrophic, mesotrophic, and eutrophic)13. Using the US Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams as a primary data source for the area of water bodies that are technically classified as reservoirs14 the total reservoir surface area in the inventory was calculated at 12,471,527 hectares (30,804,671 acres). This estimate of surface area is likely conservatively small, for the following reasons:
1) It does not include the SOO Locks on the St. Mary’s River downstream of Lake Superior. The National Inventory of Dams includes the surface area of Lake Superior associated with the locks, which skews the inventory upwards. Eutrophication and downstream impacts associated with the locks are not incorporated into this assessment.
2) At the time the version of the national inventory of dams was downloaded (October, 2021) more than 21,823 of the 91,457 records did not contain a record of surface area for the reservoir associated with the dam. A simple linear regression technique that predicts surface area from NID storage in the dataset indicates that approximately 6 million acres of reservoirs are not accounted for in the assessment.
In order to assess the proportion of dams in the different trophic classes, this analysis utilized the EPA 2012 National Lakes Assessment15, which indicates that reservoirs in the U.S. fall into the relative fractions of trophic classes shown in the table below. Combining that with the emission factors produces the following results:
13 Trophic State Index. 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_state_index, viewed 16 November 2021.
14 US Army Corps of Engineers. 2021. National Inventory of Dams.
https://nid.usace.army.mil/ords/f?p=105:1, viewed 16 November 2021.
15 US Environmental Protection Agency. 2016. National Lakes Assessment for 2012. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2016-12/documents/nla_report_dec_2016.pdf, page 12, viewed on 16 November 2021.
| Surface
Emissions |
fraction area (ha) | Emission factor | units | Emissions
(Mg CO2e/yr) |
|
| Totals | 1 | 12,471,527 | 459,405,494 | ||
| oligotrophic | 0.10 | 1,247,153 | 1087 | mg CO2e/m2/day | 4,948,141 |
| mesotrophic | 0.35 | 4,365,034 | 3782 | mg CO2e/m2/day | 60,256,244 |
| eutrophic | 0.34 | 4,240,319 | 15745 | mg CO2e/m2/day | 243,687,959 |
| hypereutrophic | 0.21 | 2,619,021 | 15745 | mg CO2e/m2/day | 150,513,151 |
In summary, the total surface emissions estimated from this analysis is 459 MMT CO2e/yr, shown in the figure below in comparison with other U.S. greenhouse gas emissions sectors.
Figure 1. Comparison of U.S. reservoir surface emissions with other U.S. Emissions Source Categories. Sources: U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data Explorer, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams, U.S. EPA National Lakes Assessment, and Deemer et al. (2016, 2020). Note: Depending on the type of dam and reservoir operations, total emissions will include additional known emissions sources, including hydroelectric turbines, fuel used for dam and reservoir construction and operations, cement used in dam construction, reservoir banks, lost or damaged downstream forests and wetlands disrupted by dam operations, deforestation before inundation, lost carbon sequestration opportunities after inundation, and ecosystem carbon losses after inevitable dam decommissioning.
In addition to the likely under-estimate of the total surface area of reservoirs in the Corps of Engineers National Dam Inventory, this estimate of total emissions from reservoir surfaces is likely conservatively small for other reasons. No separate emissions factor has been calculated for hypereutrophic water bodies, and so the emission factor for eutrophic water bodies was used to estimate emissions for hypereutrophic water bodies. Considering that emissions
increase with the eutrophic state of the water body, combined with the fact that more than a fifth of U.S. water bodies are classified by the National Lakes Assessment as hypereutrophic, this calculated emission factor of 459 million metric tons of CO2e per year from reservoir surfaces is likely much higher. If combined with the other sixteen emissions source categories across the complete life cycle of a reservoir system, the total emissions elevate reservoir systems into one of the most significant greenhouse gas emissions categories in the U.S.
This analysis compares favorably with other studies. Total per-area emissions average 36.8 Mg CO2e/ha/yr for U.S. reservoirs, which is comparable to the Deemer et al. analyses showing emissions of 24.9 Mg CO2e/ha/yr for a subsample of reservoirs internationally. The higher fraction of U.S. reservoirs in eutrophic or hypereutrophic states, compared with that fraction internationally, is the driving factor for a higher per-area analysis.
It is notable to point out that these emissions, on a per-area basis, are among the highest for any non-urban land use in the U.S. For example, the highest emissions from agricultural lands are likely from cropland on drained organic soils (35 Mg CO2e/ha)16 17.
Once they are quantified in a way that can be implemented in GHG inventories, the GHG emissions from currently unquantified emissions sources (hydropower turbines, reservoir banks, inevitable dam decommissioning, loss of ecosystem function, loss of ecosystem carbon and nitrogen downstream of dams) are likely to significantly increase the inventoried emissions from reservoirs and emissions attributed to hydropower. Emissions from dam decommissioning could be very high.18 The loss of terrestrial ecosystem carbon sequestration due to inundation largely remains unquantified. One recent study in Oct. 2021, addressed aspects of this issue19.
16 IPCC. 2013. 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands. Chapter 2: Drained Inland Organic Soils. https://www.ipcc nggip.iges.or.jp/public/wetlands/pdf/Wetlands_separate_files/WS_Chp2_Drained_Inland_Orga nic_Soils.pdf, viewed 16 November 2021.
17 It is important to note that the emissions from land use change are currently quantified in annual EPA GHG inventory, however the total land use change resulting from the construction of the current inventory of dams in the United States was largely complete by 1990, the baseline year of the U.S. GHG inventory.
18 Cuihong Song et al., Cradle-to-Grave Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Dams in the United States of America, 90 Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 945 (2018), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032118302235, viewed 16 November 2021.
19 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00845-7, viewed 16 November 2021.
Some parties have argued that dams and reservoirs simply move carbon around and do not result in net emissions over their lifecycle. There is an increasing body of evidence, codified in the bibliography provided, that casts great doubt upon that assertion. Studies that tout the benefits of reservoirs or low emissions from hydropower all share at least one of the following problems:
– Emissions from hydropower turbines are quantified using faulty methods that can lead to a substantial undercounting of GHG concentrations upstream of hydropower turbines20. This can lead to major under-estimation of off-gassed GHG emissions relative to the trace gas emissions downstream of turbines.
– Measurements not taken at appropriate time steps, or missing measurements during critical periods, such as when temperate and boreal reservoirs “turn” in the spring and fall, can lead to significant undercounting of total yearly GHG emissions21.
– Critical components of life cycle emissions, such as inevitable dam decommissioning, ecosystem carbon and nitrogen losses downstream due to flow alterations, dam construction, or other emissions source categories have not been included22.
To summarize:
– Scientists have identified at least seventeen sources of greenhouse gas emissions from reservoir systems, which occur across multiple greenhouse gas inventory categories, including energy, industrial processes, and land use & forestry.
– Only seven emissions sources from reservoir systems are currently accounted for in the US EPA annual greenhouse gas inventory.
– The fact that so many emissions sources are uncounted, and the ones that are counted are distributed across multiple emissions categories, creates the impression that
20 UNESCO and International Hydropower Association. 2010. GHG Measurement Guidelines for Freshwater Reservoirs. https://www.hydropower.org/publications/ghg-measurement guidelines-for-freshwater-reservoirs, viewed 16 November 2021.
21 Deemer, Bridget R., John A. Harrison, Siyue Li, Jake J. Beaulieu, Tonya DelSontro, Nathan Barros, José F. Bezerra-Neto, Stephen M. Powers, Marco A. dos Santos, J. Arie Vonk, (2016). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Reservoir Water Surfaces: A New Global Synthesis, BioScience, Volume 66, Issue 11, 1 November 2016, Pages 949–964,
https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw117, viewed 16 November 2021.
22 Cuihong Song et al., Cradle-to-Grave Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Dams in the United States of America, 90 Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews 945 (2018), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032118302235, viewed 16 November 2021.
emissions are relatively small compared with other types of land use, industrial processes, or energy sources.
– Critical steps need to be taken to correct this GHG undercounting bias from reservoir systems, including:
o Incorporate currently available scientific methods and evidence into the US EPA annual greenhouse gas inventory to fill existing inventory gaps, beginning with reservoir surface emissions and lost carbon sequestration
o Initiate studies to collect the data necessary to construct general models that can be applied in a general way to the remaining missing GHG sources, including emissions from hydropower turbines and reservoir banks, inevitable dam decommissioning and reservoir site remediation, disrupted wetlands and riparian forests due to altered downstream flow regimes, and lost carbon sequestration potential after dam construction and reservoir inundation.
Scientific Literature Describing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Dam and Reservoir Systems
2021
Bertassoli, D. J., Sawakuchi, H. O., de Araújo, K. R., de Camargo, M. G. P., Alem, V. A. T., Pereira, T. S., Krusche, A. V., Bastviken, D., Richey, J. E., & Sawakuchi, A. O. (2021). How Green can Amazon Hydropower be? Net Carbon Emission from the Largest Hydropower Plant in Amazonia. Science
Advances, 7(26). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe1470
Harrison, John, Yves T. Prairie, Sara Mercier‐Blais, Cynthia Soued. (2021) Year‐2020 Global Distribution and Pathways of Reservoir Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emissions According to the Greenhouse Gas from Reservoirs (G‐res) Model. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, doi: 10.1029/2020GB006888
Jane, S.F., Hansen, G.J.A., Kraemer, B.M. et al. (2021) Widespread Deoxygenation of Temperate Lakes. Nature 594, 66–70 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03550-y
Keller, P.S., Marcé, R., Obrador, B. et al. (2021) Global Carbon Budget of Reservoirs is Overturned by the Quantification of Drawdown Areas. Nat. Geosci. Global carbon budget of reservoirs is overturned by the quantification of drawdown areas
2020
Beaulieu, J, et al.; (2020) Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emissions From Reservoirs, Journal of Geophysical research. Biogeosciences, Vol.125 (12), p.n/a, doi: Methane and carbon dioxide emissions from reservoirs: Controls and Upscaling
Deemer, Bridget R. et al. (2020), Data from: Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Reservoir Water Surfaces: A New Global Synthesis, Dryad,
Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.d2kv0
2019
Almeida, R.M., Shi, Q., Gomes-Selman, J.M. et al. (2019) Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Amazon Hydropower with Strategic Dam Planning. Nat Commun 10, 4281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12179-5
Beaulieu, J.J., DelSontro, T. & Downing, J.A. (2019) Eutrophication will Increase Methane Emissions from Lakes and Impoundments during the 21st Century. Nat Commun 10, 1375. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09100-5
Hager, PhD, Cecil Green and Ida Green Professor of Earth Sciences Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences Massachusetts Institute of Technology Documentation of the Carbon Footprint of Hydro Québec’s Hydropower https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eq7QMjPx1X-Tzsl7vmtJpmfUJBMPkJ9r/view
Marcé, R. et al. (2019) Emissions from Dry Inland Waters are a Blind Spot in the Global Carbon Cycle. Earth Sci. Rev. 188, 240–
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2018.11.012
Ocko, Ilissa B. and Steven P. Hamburg, (2019) Climate Impacts of Hydropower: Enormous Differences among Facilities and over Time, Environmental Science & Technology 2019 53 (23), 14070-14082 DOI:
10.1021/acs.est.9b05083 https://www.eenews.net/assets/2019/11/15/document_ew_01. pdf
2018
Chow, M.F.; Bakhrojin, M.A.b.; Haris, H.; Dinesh, (2018), A.A.A. Assessment of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission from Hydropower Reservoirs in
Malaysia. Proceedings 2018, 2, 1380. https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2221380
DelSontro, T., J. Beaulieu, AND J. Downing. (2018), Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Lakes and Impoundments: Upscaling in the Face of Global Change. Limnology and Oceanography Letters. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 3(3):64- 75. https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/lol2.10073
Kosten, S. et al. (2018). Extreme Drought Boosts CO2 and CH4 Emissions from Reservoir Drawdown Areas. Inland Waters 8, 329–
- https://doi.org/10.1080/20442041.2018.1483126
Prairie YT, Alm J, Beaulieu J, et al. (2018). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Freshwater Reservoirs: What Does the Atmosphere See?. Ecosystems; 21(5):1058- 1071. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-017-0198-9
Räsänen, Timo A. et al. (2018). Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Hydropower in the Mekong River Basin, Environ. Res. Lett. 13
034030 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aaa817
Samiotis G, Pekridis G, Kaklidis N, Trikoilidou E, Taousanidis N, Amanatidou E. (2018). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from two Hydroelectric Reservoirs in Mediterranean Region. Environ Monit Assess. May 26;190(6):363. doi: 10.1007/s10661-018-6721-4
Song, C. et al., (2018). Cradle-to-Grave Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Dams in the United States of America, 90 Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324993878_Cradle-to
grave_greenhouse_gas_emissions_from_dams_in_the_United_States_of_America
2017
Maavara, T., R. Lauerwald, P. Regnier, P.Van Cappellen. (2017) Global Perturbation of Organic Carbon Cycling by River Damming. Nature Communications, 8: 15347 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15347
2016
Beaulieu, J.J., McManus, M.G. and Nietch, C.T. (2016), Estimates of Reservoir Methane Emissions based on a Spatially Balanced Probabilistic-survey. Limnol. Oceanogr., 61: S27-S40. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.10284
Deemer, Bridget R., John A. Harrison, Siyue Li, Jake J. Beaulieu, Tonya DelSontro, Nathan Barros, José F. Bezerra-Neto, Stephen M. Powers, Marco A. dos Santos, J. Arie Vonk, (2016). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Reservoir Water Surfaces: A New Global Synthesis, BioScience, Volume 66, Issue 11, 1 November 2016, Pages 949– 964, “https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biw117
Fearnside, P. (2016) Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Brazil’s Amazonian Hydroelectric Dams, Environ. Res. Lett. 11 011002. doi: 10.1088/1748- 9326/11/1/011002
Scherer, Laura & Stephan Pfister, (2016). Hydropower’s Biogenic Carbon Footprint, PLOS ONE, September 14,
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0161947
2015
De Faria, Felipe A M, Jaramillo, Paulina, Sawakuchi, Henrique O, Richey, Jeffrey E, & Barros, Nathan (Dec 2015). Estimating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from future Amazonian Hydroelectric Reservoirs. Environmental Research Letters, 10(12), 13. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124019/pdf
Fearnside, Philip. 2015. Emissions from Tropical Hydropower and the IPCC. Environmental Science and Policy 50:225-229. doi: 10.1016/j.envsci.2015.03.002 Fedorov, M.P., Elistratov, V.V., Maslikov, V.I. et al. 2015. Reservoir Greenhouse Gas Emissions at Russian HPP. Power Technol Eng 49, 33–
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s10749-015-0569-3
2014
Maeck, A., Hofmann, H., and Lorke, A. (2014). Pumping Methane out of Aquatic Sediments – Ebullition Forcing Mechanisms in an Impounded River, Biogeosciences, 11, 2925–2938, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-2925-2014
2013
Hertwich EG.(2013) Addressing Biogenic Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Hydropower in LCA. Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Sep 3;47(17):9604-11. doi: 10.1021/es401820p.
Maeck, Andreas, Tonya DelSontro, Daniel F. McGinnis, Helmut Fischer, Sabine Flury, Mark Schmidt, Peer Fietzek, and Andreas Lorke, (2013) Sediment Trapping by Dams Creates Methane Emission Hot Spots, Environmental Science & Technology 2013 47 (15), 8130-8137
doi: 10.1021/es4003907
2012
Steinhurst, William, et al. (2012). Hydropower Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Synapse Energy Econ.. 12. https://www.synapse
energy.com/sites/default/files/SynapseReport.2012-02.CLF+PEW.GHG-from-Hydro.10- 056.pdf
Teodoru, Cristian et al. (2012). The Net Carbon Footprint of a Newly Created Boreal Hydroelectric Reservoir, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, May 2012, at 1. West, W. E. et al. (2012). Effects of Algal and Terrestrial Carbon on Methane Production Rates and Methanogen Community Structure in a Temperate Lake
Sediment.” Freshwater Biology 57, 949-
- https://www3.nd.edu/~sjones20/ewExternalFiles/Westetal2012_FWB.pdf 2011
Barros, N., Cole, J., Tranvik, L. et al. (2011). Carbon Emission from Hydroelectric Reservoirs Linked to Reservoir Age and Latitude. Nature Geosci 4, 593– 596.https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1211
2009
Gunkel, G. (2009), Hydropower – A Green Energy? Tropical Reservoirs and Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Clean Soil Air Water, 37: 726-
- https://doi.org/10.1002/clen.200900062
2007
Walter, Katey, Laurence Smith, and Stuart Chapin. (2007) Methane bubbling from northern lakes: present and future contributions to the global methane budget. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.3651657–1676. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2007.2036
2006
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2006), Appendix 3 — CH4 Emissions from Flooded Land: Basis for Future Methodological
Development, https://www.ipcc
nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/pdf/4_Volume4/V4_p_Ap3_WetlandsCH4.pdf 2005
Fearnside, P. (2005) Do Hydroelectric Dams Mitigate Global Warming? The Case of Brazil’s CuruÁ-una Dam. Mitig Adapt Strat Glob Change 10, 675– 691.. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-005-7303-7
Tremblay et al. (2005). Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Fluxes and Processes: Hydroelectric Reservoirs and Natural Environments. Germany: Springer, 2005. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783540234555
2000
Rosenberg, David M., Patrick McCully and Catherine M. Pringle, (2000). Global-Scale Environmental Effects of Hydrological Alterations: Introduction, BioScience, Volume 50, Issue 9, September 2000, Pages 746–751, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006- 3568(2000)050[0746:GSEEOH]2.0.CO;2
St. Louis, Vincent L., Carol A. Kelly, Éric Duchemin, John W. M. Rudd, David M. Rosenberg, (2000). Reservoir Surfaces as Sources of Greenhouse Gases to the Atmosphere: A Global Estimate. BioScience, Volume 50, Issue 9, September, Pages 766–775, https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2000)050[0766:RSASOG]2.0.CO;2
1997
Fearnside, P. (1997). Greenhouse-Gas Emissions from Amazonian Hydroelectric Reservoirs: The Example of Brazil’s Tucuruí Dam as Compared to Fossil Fuel Alternatives. Environmental Conservation, 24(1), 64-75.
doi:10.1017/S0376892997000118
1995
Fearnside, P. (1995). Hydroelectric Dams in the Brazilian Amazon as Sources of ‘Greenhouse’ Gases. Environmental Conservation, 22(1), 7-19.
doi:10.1017/S0376892900034020