Small-scale topography explains patterns and dynamics of dissolved organic carbon exports from the riparian zone of a temperate, forested catchment

Werner, Benedikt J.; Lechtenfeld, Oliver J.; Musolff, Andreas; de Rooij, Gerrit H.; Yang, Jie; Gründling, Ralf; Werban, Ulrike; Fleckenstein, Jan H.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6067-2021

Articles | Volume 25, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6067-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6067-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 12

Research article

|

30 Nov 2021

Research article |

| 30 Nov 2021

Small-scale topography explains patterns and dynamics of dissolved organic carbon exports from the riparian zone of a temperate, forested catchment

Benedikt J. Werner, Oliver J. Lechtenfeld, Andreas Musolff, Gerrit H. de Rooij, Jie Yang, Ralf Gründling, Ulrike Werban, and Jan H. Fleckenstein

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6067-2021-supplement

Data sets

High resolution spatial, chemical (dissolved organic carbon) and hydrological dataset of the upper Rappbode Catchment in the temperate Harz Mountains, Germany Benedikt J. Werner https://doi.org/10.4211/hs.b32ba184414e475ba36a0bb193866ef1

Short summary

Export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from riparian zones (RZs) is an important yet poorly understood component of the catchment carbon budget. This study chemically and spatially classifies DOC source zones within a RZ of a small catchment to assess DOC export patterns. Results highlight that DOC export from only a small fraction of the RZ with distinct DOC composition dominates overall DOC export. The application of a spatial, topographic proxy can be used to improve DOC export models.