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Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size

River networks regulate carbon and nutrient exchange between continents, atmosphere, and oceans. However, contributions of riverine processing are poorly constrained at continental scales. Scaling relationships of cumulative biogeochemical function with watershed size (allometric scaling) provide an...

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Autores principales: Wollheim, Wilfred M., Harms, Tamara K., Robison, Andrew L., Koenig, Lauren E., Helton, Ashley M., Song, Chao, Bowden, William B., Finlay, Jacques C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8907334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35264560
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28630-z
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author Wollheim, Wilfred M.
Harms, Tamara K.
Robison, Andrew L.
Koenig, Lauren E.
Helton, Ashley M.
Song, Chao
Bowden, William B.
Finlay, Jacques C.
author_facet Wollheim, Wilfred M.
Harms, Tamara K.
Robison, Andrew L.
Koenig, Lauren E.
Helton, Ashley M.
Song, Chao
Bowden, William B.
Finlay, Jacques C.
author_sort Wollheim, Wilfred M.
collection PubMed
description River networks regulate carbon and nutrient exchange between continents, atmosphere, and oceans. However, contributions of riverine processing are poorly constrained at continental scales. Scaling relationships of cumulative biogeochemical function with watershed size (allometric scaling) provide an approach for quantifying the contributions of fluvial networks in the Earth system. Here we show that allometric scaling of cumulative riverine function with watershed area ranges from linear to superlinear, with scaling exponents constrained by network shape, hydrological conditions, and biogeochemical process rates. Allometric scaling is superlinear for processes that are largely independent of substrate concentration (e.g., gross primary production) due to superlinear scaling of river network surface area with watershed area. Allometric scaling for typically substrate-limited processes (e.g., denitrification) is linear in river networks with high biogeochemical activity or low river discharge but becomes increasingly superlinear under lower biogeochemical activity or high discharge, conditions that are widely prevalent in river networks. The frequent occurrence of superlinear scaling indicates that biogeochemical activity in large rivers contributes disproportionately to the function of river networks in the Earth system.
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spelling pubmed-89073342022-03-23 Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size Wollheim, Wilfred M. Harms, Tamara K. Robison, Andrew L. Koenig, Lauren E. Helton, Ashley M. Song, Chao Bowden, William B. Finlay, Jacques C. Nat Commun Article River networks regulate carbon and nutrient exchange between continents, atmosphere, and oceans. However, contributions of riverine processing are poorly constrained at continental scales. Scaling relationships of cumulative biogeochemical function with watershed size (allometric scaling) provide an approach for quantifying the contributions of fluvial networks in the Earth system. Here we show that allometric scaling of cumulative riverine function with watershed area ranges from linear to superlinear, with scaling exponents constrained by network shape, hydrological conditions, and biogeochemical process rates. Allometric scaling is superlinear for processes that are largely independent of substrate concentration (e.g., gross primary production) due to superlinear scaling of river network surface area with watershed area. Allometric scaling for typically substrate-limited processes (e.g., denitrification) is linear in river networks with high biogeochemical activity or low river discharge but becomes increasingly superlinear under lower biogeochemical activity or high discharge, conditions that are widely prevalent in river networks. The frequent occurrence of superlinear scaling indicates that biogeochemical activity in large rivers contributes disproportionately to the function of river networks in the Earth system. Nature Publishing Group UK 2022-03-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8907334/ /pubmed/35264560 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28630-z Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Wollheim, Wilfred M.
Harms, Tamara K.
Robison, Andrew L.
Koenig, Lauren E.
Helton, Ashley M.
Song, Chao
Bowden, William B.
Finlay, Jacques C.
Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size
title Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size
title_full Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size
title_fullStr Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size
title_full_unstemmed Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size
title_short Superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size
title_sort superlinear scaling of riverine biogeochemical function with watershed size
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8907334/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35264560
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28630-z
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