Brief Paper: 'Groundwater Depletion: A Significant Unreported Source of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide'

I stumbled across this short paper while checking out the MSU Hydrogeology Lab Twitter: Groundwater Depletion: A Significant Unreported Source of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide by Warren W. Wood and David Hyndman. The paper's senior author is friend Warren W. Wood, who retired from the USGS years ago and then headed home to MSU and is still going strong. Warren's one of the smartest guys in the room when it comes to hydrogeology and hydrogeochemistry. Another role model for me. And second author David W. Hyndman is no slouch, either. Those two guys alone will guarantee an excellent paper. 

Citation:

Wood, W. W., & Hyndman, D. W. (2017), Groundwater Depletion: A Significant Unreported Source of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, Earth’s Future, 5. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000586

Download Wood_Hyndman_2017_GW_AtmCO2

Abstract

Quantifying the annual flux of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and equivalent emissions to the atmo- sphere is critical for both policy decisions and modeling of future climate change. Given the importance of greenhouse gas emissions to climate change and a recognized mismatch between sources and sinks (e.g., Liu & Dreybrodt, 2015), it is important to quantify these parameters. A significant and previously unrec- ognized CO2 contribution arises from groundwater depletion (net removal from storage). The average annual 1.7 MMT (million metric tons) CO2 released in the United States from this source is greater than approximately one third of the 23 major sources reported by the US EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; US EPA, 2016).

Plain Language Summary

We suggest that groundwater depletion adds significant and mea- surable CO2 to the atmosphere and should be considered as a source in future CO2 budgets as groundwa- ter depletion at the same or greater rate is likely to continue.

Key Point:

• Significant and previously unidentified CO2 source to the atmosphere 

Elaine Hanford noted this research in her 20 November BB - see this post. 

Enjoy!

 “Life is a moderately good play with a badly-written third act.” – Truman Capote 

Comments

[Elaine J Hanford]

Michael,
Sorry...I had included a news release at the end of the Environmental Science Bulletin Board on 20 Nov:

• https://phys.org/news/2017-11-groundwater-depletion-significant-source-atmospheric.html

Elaine