14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists published a study in Nature Geoscience which shows the fact that rivers and other water surfaces breathe a significant amount of carbon dioxide. It seems that the quantity of CO2 which reaches the green layer of vegetation visits waterways before it ends up in the atmosphere.
According to the study, rivers and streams across the US are able to launch into the atmosphere annually, approximately 97 teragrams of carbon.
By studying the gathered information, researchers reached the conclusion that 4, 000 rivers across America manage to produce the same amount of CO2 it would be generated while burning 40 billion gallons of gasoline.
So far, the lack of proper measurements make the scientists unable to determine the position of water surfaces as CO2 providers for our planet's atmosphere. This breakthrough changes the way scientists used to picture the circulating process of carbon dioxide.
“They are a source of carbon dioxide, just like we breathe out carbon dioxide and like smokestacks emit carbon dioxide,” declared David Butman, from Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.