Methane emission of Amazonian hydroelectric reservoirs from Powerlaw relations.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo avaliar a emissão de metano em dois reservatórios amazônicos, Tucuruí e Samuel. A análise leva em consideração flutuações da área/cota e medidas isotópicas e de fluxos de d13CH4 obtidas em campo, as quais são influenciadas por diversos fatores simultaneamente, como ventos, pressão atmosférica, oxidação na coluna d´água e outros. A composição isotópica do metano em bolhas do sedimento indica que a principal via metanogênica é a redução de CO2. Os resultados também mostram que as emissões em reservatórios rasos são bem mais elevadas que nos mais profundos. Usando conceitos e técnicas da teoria fractal, baseada fundamentalmente em leis de potência, um modelo entre nível de água, área do reservatório e fluxo de metano permitiu estimar a emissão do reservatório de Tucuruí, num horizonte de 100 anos de vida útil, em 2,5 ± 2,7 x 10^6 toneladas de CH4. As emissões locais são amplificadas com a diminuição da cota, porém a emissão total do reservatório diminui, em função da contração da área do reservatório. Num cenário mais otimista, as emissões de Tucuruí em CO2 equivalentes devem ser 0,13 ± 0,14 x 10^6 toneladas de C/ano.The purpose of this work is evaluating methane emissions from two Amazonian reservoirs, Tucuruí and Samuel. The analysis considers fluctuations of the reservoir area-height and isotopic measurements and fluxes of d13CH4 acquired in the field, which are influenced by many factors simultaneously, such as winds, atmospheric pressure, oxidation in the water column, and others. Isotopic composition of methane in bubbles indicates that CO2 reduction is a major pathway for methane production in the sediments. The results also show that fluxes are higher in shallow reservoirs than in deeper ones. Using concepts and techniques of fractal theory, fundamentally based on power law functions, and considering a time horizon of 100 years, a model between water level, flux and reservoir area of Tucuruí allowed to estimate methane emission from Tucuruí at about 2,5 ± 2,7 x 10^6 tons of CH4. When water levels drop local methane emissions are enhanced, although, total reservoir emission decreases, due to the shrinking of the reservoir area. Over an optimistic scenario, the emissions of Tucuruí reservoir in CO2 equivalents would be around 0,13 ± 0,14 x 10^6 tons C/year

Da quantidade à qualidade

A temida explosão populacional já não se encontra no papel principal do palco das discussões ambientais no planeta e no Brasil. A tendência do aumento da população mundial é de estabilização, ainda na primeira metade deste século. O desrespeito às políticas públicas de desenvolvimento e a falta de qualidade de vida da maioria das pessoas são muito mais preocupantes hoje do que o ritmo de crescimento da população mundial. Particularmente quando se estima que dois terços da população no mundo e..

Análise de campo gradiente e dimensão de Hausdorff-Besicovitch aplicados na dinâmica espaço-temporal de ecossistemas aquáticos impactados

The use of lattice operators to determine parameters involved in the dynamics of impacted water ecosystems.Pages: 1301-130

Localização de áreas de monitoramento telemétrico em ambientes aquáticos da Amazônia Location of telemetric monitoring sites in Amazon floodplain lakes

O presente trabalho demonstra a aplicabilidade de imagens de sensoriamento remoto e de métodos de processamento de imagens digitais para definição de locais adequados à instalação de sistemas telemétricos de monitoramento de variáveis ambientais em sistemas aquáticos, localizados em regiões de difícil acesso. A técnica consiste essencialmente da aplicação de operações Booleanas entre mapas da pluma do Rio Amazonas e de zonas inundadas do Lago de Curuai em diferentes etapas do ciclo hidrológico. A localização exata para o sistema de monitoramento telemétrico será vital para o desenvolvimento de modelos de troca de gases traço entre a planície de inundação Amazônica e a atmosfera.<br>The present work illustrates the application of remote sensing and image processing methods to define appropriate sites for installing buoy moored telemetric systems at the surface of Amazon floodplain lakes for long-term limnologic-micrometeorologic monitoring. The technique consists essentially of Boolean operations over Amazon plume maps and historic inundation of the Curuai Lake at distinct stages of the hydrologic cycle. The precise location for the long-term monitoring is vital to the development of models concerning air-water trace gas exchange in the Amazon floodplains

Methane stocks in tropical hydropower reservoirs as a potential energy source

Several studies over the last decade have shown that tropical reservoirs may constitute an appreciable source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. Here, we show that the use of low-cost, innovative mitigation and recovery strategies is able not only to reduce these emissions, but also to transform existing biogenic methane stocks into a renewable energy source. Recovered gas may be pumped to large consuming centers or stored locally and burned by gas turbines to generate electricity during high-demand periods, or even purified for transport applications. Our analysis shows that the use of biogenic methane may increase considerably the energy supply in countries, like Brazil, which possess large tropical reservoirs. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

Regionalization of methane emissions in the Amazon Basin with microwave remote sensing

Wetlands of the Amazon River basin are globally significant sources of atmospheric methane. Satellite remote sensing (passive and active microwave) of the temporally varying extent of inundation and vegetation was combined with field measurements to calculate regional rates of methane emission for Amazonian wetlands. Monthly inundation areas for the fringing floodplains of the mainstem Solimões/Amazon River were derived from analysis of the 37 GHz polarization difference observed by the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer from 1979 to 1987. L-band synthetic aperture radar data (Japanese Earth Resources Satellite-1) were used to determine inundation and wetland vegetation for the Amazon basin (&lt;500 m elevation) at high (May-June 1996) and low water (October 1995). An extensive set of measurements of methane emission is available from the literature for the fringing floodplains of the central Amazon, segregated into open water, flooded forest and floating macrophyte habitats. Uncertainties in the regional emission rates were determined by Monte Carlo error analyses that combined error estimates for the measurements of emission and for calculations of inundation and habitat areas. The mainstem Solimões/Amazon floodplain (54-70°W) emitted methane at a mean annual rate of 1.3 Tg C yr-1, with a standard deviation (SD) of the mean of 0.3 Tg C yr-1; 67% of this range in uncertainty is owed to the range in rates of methane emission and 33% is owed to uncertainty in the areal estimates of inundation and vegetative cover. Methane emission from a 1.77 million square kilometers area in the central basin had a mean of 6.8 Tg C yr-1 with a SD of 1.3 Tg C yr-1. If extrapolated to the whole basin below the 500 m contour, approximately 22 Tg C yr-1 is emitted; this mean flux has a greenhouse warming potential of about 0.5 Pg C as CO2. Improvement of these regional estimates will require many more field measurements of methane emission, further examination of remotely sensed data for types of wetlands not represented in the central basin, and process-based models of methane production and emission. © 2004 Blackwell Publishing Ltd