Controls on the processing and fate of terrestrially-derived organic carbon in aquatic ecosystems: synthesis of special issue

Abstract

This special issue brought together a complementary set of studies describing the range of processes affecting the cycling and fate of terrigenous organic matter within aquatic systems. It focuses in particular on headwater streams, and on peat catchments as major global sources of freshwater dissolved organic matter and of particulate organic matter in areas of peat erosion. This work is placed within the wider context of processes occurring in forested and agricultural headwaters, larger river systems and estuaries, and in a policy context in relation to national-scale carbon fluxes, the treatment of organic matter in drinking water supplies and the inclusion of aquatic carbon in international greenhouse gas accounting.