Collaborative Research: Flooding the Colorado River Delta: Impacts of Flow Restoration on River-Carbon Composition and Fluxes

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An addition to the 1944 U.S.-Mexico Water Treaty between the United States and Mexico will allow for greater sharing of water from the Colorado River. This agreement calls for a flooding event, planned for from March 2014 to May 2014, whereby 130 million m3 of water will be released into the dry Colorado River channel in Mexico. The project will examine how rapid mobilization of carbon and greenhouse gasses in newly flooded sediments and soils, affect river-carbon composition and fluxes (land/ocean and land/atmosphere), after being isolated from an active floodplain. This is particularly important in light of possible increases in the occurrence of natural flooding events associated with climate change. It is also an important study in terms of understanding the unintended consequences of such ecosystem restoration efforts. The project is to be conducted as a cooperative venture between US academic scientists, USGS scientists and faculty/students from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. The project will generate international experience and provide a basis for entry into a carbon cycle problem of significant scope. This project is supported by EAR/HS, EAR/GG, EAR/GLD, DEB/ECO and ISE/GVF.