Small Headwater Streams Export Carbon

Alba Argerich, assistant research professor at Oregon State University, collects water samples in a headwater stream in Watershed 1 at the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. (Photo courtesy of the US Forest Service)

In a 2016 publication from Andrews Forest, researcher Alba Argerich and colleagues suggest that forested watersheds may not store quite as much carbon as previously thought. Small, headwater streams, such as those found in the Andrews Forest, import a higher than expected amount of carbon. See the press release. The paper, "Comprehensive multi-year carbon budget of a temperate headwater stream," was published in Biogeosciences: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015JG003050/full.