Professor Jihyung Park of Environmental Science and Engineering and His International Co-Research Team Publishes a Paper
- Date2020.05.14
- 2449
International co-research team, Dryflux, in which professor Jihyung Park participated in published a paper (Global CO2 Emissions From Dry Inland Waters Share Common Drivers Across Ecosystems) on Nature Communications on May 1st. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15929-y) Dryflux introduced new research results on the relationship and mechanism behind desiccation of rivers and lakes and increase in CO2 emission, based on the findings from 196 sites around the world.
Various inland waters ecosystem encompassing Earth’s rivers, lakes and reservoirs has recently attracted attention as a major source of greenhouse gas emission. It is estimated that CO2 emission from Earth’s inland waters ecosystem exceeds by 20% that of CO2 emission from artificial sources such as burning of the fossil fuel and destruction of the rain forests. Inland waters ecosystem worldwide are becoming drier due to abuse of water resources and climate change. However, there is not enough research on how the amount of greenhouse gas emission changes in the desiccation process.
(Research team under Professor Park is carrying out research on Soyang Lake which displays the surface due to draught in 2015)
Dryflux chose 196 dried-out sites around the world excluding the Antarctica and carried out onsite measurements. (Fig. 1) Research on various climate and ecosystem had been conducted and in most of the sites, similar environmental factors such as moisture and temperature were linked to the increase in CO2 emissions, resulting from dryness. When we apply the results of the 196 sites to the entire inland water ecosystem on Earth, we can conclude that an additional 0.12 Pg (gigaton), which amount to 6% of the entire inland water CO2 emissions, is emitted.
Source: Nature Communications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15929-y)
Since 2017, professor Park’s lab has been conducting research on carbon cycle and greenhouse gas emission from the upper course of Han River basin to the river mouth. Recently, the lab is carrying out research on water pollution and greenhouse gas emission from environmental changes around Yellow River in China, Mekong River in Southeast Asia and Ganges River in India. In regard to the relationship between dry inland water ecosystem and greenhouse gas emission, the lab has already published a paper on a renowned academic journal Environmental Research Letters with their research on the exposure of sedimentary layer and increase of greenhouse gases in Soyang Lake due to the prolonged drought in 2015. Due to a severe drought in 2015, Soyang Lake set the lowest records of water level since the construction of its dam in 1973. (Refer to the cover photo.) Compared to before the drought, surface area in Soyang Lake decreased rapidly, exposing 15km2 of the sedimentary layer. Professor Park’s research team conducted onsite measurements in the exposed layers and reported an unprecedented phenomenon of substantial amount of three major greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) emission in such a short period when drought reached its peak. It is expected that severe drought will break out more frequently in the future due to climate change. Therefore, we need in-depth research on how greenhouse gas emission from inland water ecosystem will change according to change in water resources from droughts.