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Drought constrictions on lateral carbon transport

Nature Geoscience (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Drought impedes the lateral flux of carbon along continental river networks to the oceans due to reduction in water flow. Here we show that, in addition to lower flow, drought also exacerbates secondary carbonate formation and atmospheric CO2 emissions. We report sub-hourly field measurements of major ion chemistry in the upper Sangamon River in North America, revealing that drought accelerates the characteristically rapid pace of carbonate mineral formation at the watershed scale. Over 195 consecutive days of moderate hydrologic drought, we observe a 17% decrease in annual riverine lateral carbon flux due to secondary carbonate formation, in addition to the restrictions imposed by low flow rates, indicating a natural limit to the inorganic carbon carrying capacity of rivers. We use historical datasets and a compilation of global river geochemistry measurements to show that this phenomenon is reproducible and widespread during periods of drought.

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Fig. 1: Drought-induced shifts in chemical composition of a river.
Fig. 2: Solute signatures of drought are consistent and detectable in historic records.
Fig. 3: Excess terrestrial carbon emissions and HCO3− decline during periods of drought across continental United States.

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Data availability

RiverLab data utilized in this study are available via a HydroShare data repository at https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.2c6c1d02c3ec4b97a767c787e1889647 (ref. 58). WQP water chemistry data are publicly available at https://www.waterqualitydata.us/. GLORICH data are publicly available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.902360 (ref. 50). GRDC data are publicly available at https://grdc.bafg.de/. The co-location data of GLORICH and GRDC stations are sourced from ref. 9.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by the NSF EAR-2012850, Network Cluster CINet: Critical Interface Network in Intensively Managed Landscapes. M.J.W. was supported by NSF EAR-2318056. We acknowledge the United States Geological Survey, GLObal RIver CHemistry Database, Global Runoff Data Centre and Water Quality Portal. We thank E. Bauer, A. J. Stumpf, J. Haken, A. Dolant, P. Floury and S. Baron for RiverLab construction and maintenance. We thank D. J. Graham for providing the co-location data of GLORICH and GRDC stations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Science and Environmental Change, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Jinyu Wang & Jennifer L. Druhan

  2. Université Paris Cité, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS, Paris, France

    Julien Bouchez & Jennifer L. Druhan

  3. Department of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Matthew J. Winnick

  4. Prairie Research Institute at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    Allison E. Goodwell & Praveen Kumar

  5. Department of Geology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE, USA

    Ashlee Dere

  6. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

    Praveen Kumar

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  1. Jinyu Wang
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Contributions

J.W. was responsible for data collection, curation and analysis, paper writing and figures. J.B. contributed to the study design, analysis and paper writing. M.J.W., A.E.G. and A.D. contributed analysis and aided in paper writing. P.K. was responsible for funding acquisition and contributed to paper writing. J.L.D. led and designed the study, guided analysis and contributed to paper writing.

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Correspondence to Jinyu Wang or Jennifer L. Druhan.

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Nature Geoscience thanks John Higgins, Robert Hilton and Pierre Regnier for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editors: Carolina Ortiz Guerrero and Tom Richardson, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Time series of river discharge and solute concentrations at the RiverLab located in Monticello, IL.

a, Major cation concentrations (K+, Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+; in mM). Concentrations of K+ are presented at 10x for better visualization. b, Major anion concentrations (Cl−, NO3−, SO42−; in mM). River discharge (in m3/s) is shown by the gray filled curve and the 2022 drought period is unshaded. c, Inferred calcium (Ca2+; in mM) based on the long-term Ca:Na molar ratio of the river.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Piper diagram of the Upper Sangamon River hydrochemistry during the 2022 drought and non-drought periods based on RiverLab data.

The diagram is generated using WQChartPy59 python package and the average concentration of each solute is displayed. A significant transition of river water composition can be observed between drought and non-drought conditions. During drought, the proportion of Na+, K+, and Cl− increased while the level of Ca2+ and HCO3− decreased.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Time series of anion concentrations normalized to their flux-weighted mean values outside of the drought period.

River discharge (in m3/s) is shown by the gray filled curve.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Drought-induced perturbation of the terrestrial inorganic carbon cycle.

Prolonged periods of drought promote secondary carbonate formation within the landscape, leading to increased CO2 evasion compared to long term, ambient conditions. Combined with lower water flow, this process impedes lateral carbon flux by rivers. These shifts in carbon fluxes are signaled by an attendant stability in calcium concentrations while sodium and other major ions increase due to evapo-concentration. These increased concentrations counterbalance reduced flow rates to maintain a high mass flux. High-frequency hydrochemical recording by the RiverLab installation in the agricultural Upper Sangamon River catchment provides evidence of these shifts, manifesting as a systematic decrease in the Ca/Na molar ratio of the river.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Time series of conductivity and ionic strength in the Upper Sangamon River measured in the RiverLab.

a, Conductivity (in μS/cm). b, Ionic strength (in mM). River discharge (in m3/s) is shown by the gray curve with filling and 2022 drought period is highlighted by white background.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Excess terrestrial carbon emissions during periods of drought across Europe.

Values (in kg C/km2-day) are based on 308 individual GLORICH50 stations, each of which offers at least 3 measurements of Na and Ca during a period of Q10 drought based on the Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC)44. Watersheds which naturally exhibit solute compositions near or above saturation with respect to calcite are outlined in red. Those that naturally fall below this point are outlined in blue. Basemap from Natural Earth (https://www.naturalearthdata.com).

Extended Data Fig. 7 Multiple estimations of excess terrestrial carbon emissions during periods of drought across continental United States.

a-c, Q10, Q20 and Q30 with at least 1 measurement of Na+ and Ca2+ under drought. d-f, Q10, Q20 and Q30 with at least 2 measurements. g-i, Q10, Q20 and Q30 with at least 3 measurements. Watersheds that are near or above saturation with respect to calcite are outlined in red. Undersaturated watersheds are outlined in blue. Basemaps from Natural Earth (https://www.naturalearthdata.com).

Extended Data Table 1 WQP40 pH of the Upper Sangamon River at USGS gauge station 05572000 (Sangamon River at Monticello, IL)
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 WQP40 Na+ and Ca2+ concentrations (in mM) of the Upper Sangamon River at USGS gauge station 05572000 (Sangamon River at Monticello, IL)
Full size table
Extended Data Table 3 Flux-weighted Ca:Na ratio and corresponding calculations during 2022 and 2012 drought
Full size table

Supplementary information

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Supplementary Figs. 1–8, discussion and Tables 1–4.

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Wang, J., Bouchez, J., Winnick, M.J. et al. Drought constrictions on lateral carbon transport. Nat. Geosci. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01807-z

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