The importance of carbon fluxes from seasonal wetlands to streams at a catchment scale in the wet-dry tropics

Earlier research has highlighted the role of inland water systems in the carbon (C) cycle. It has been shown that less than 50% of the C imported by rivers and streams is effectively exported to the ocean, and that other inlands aquatic systems as wetlands and floodplains play a pivotal role in the C dynamics of a catchment. This project explores the C fluxes in a small (34.1 km2) savanna catchment in the wet-dry tropics of Australia and aims to (1) to integrate the C inputs of seasonal wetlands into stream C budgets, (ii) evaluate the ratio of CO2 in the stream that is sourced by stream metabolism in different morphological structures, (iii) identify the C sources, pathways, and fate of each C species in the stream, and (iv) evaluate the C dynamics of the catchment under different rainfall inputs based on the approach of the SAVTAM model (Birkel et al., 2020; Birkel et al., 2017). Results from this study will provide the first annual C budget of a catchment in the wet-dry tropics and widen our understanding of the processes underneath the C cycling in the catchments of this climatic region.