The carbon footprint of hydroelectric reservoirs and inland waters in Québec

拟议的研究计划既需要为特定的水库制定详细的碳预算，以便量化与水力发电相关的碳足迹，并了解潜在的过程，又从更广泛的角度将水电开发视为一种景观变化，从根本上改变水生网络的生物地球化学功能，从而改变魁北克北部生物群的区域碳平衡。为了解决这两个相辅相成但在概念上和实践上截然不同的问题，拟议的CRD项目与魁北克水电公司(HQ)合作，分为四个部分：1)确定新建成的La Romaine水电开发项目的C足迹，作为水库梯级综合体的独特案例。2)确定魁北克北部内陆水域(湖泊和河流)的C足迹(汇和源)，以及这一足迹在未来气候和环境变化情景下可能如何变化。这一组成部分是必要的第一步，以便在整个景观尺度上从网络的角度将储集层整合起来。3)根据全港水塘的新量度和现有的长期数据组合，根据水塘的年龄、位置和地区特征来模拟水塘的排放量。4)确定位于魁北克北部的水库群目前的温室气体排放量，并得出水电开发可能如何改变区域尺度上的水生碳足迹的一阶估计，以及在未来气候和环境变化的情景下，这种碳足迹可能如何随时间在区域内转移。这项拟议的研究建立在与总部15年来卓有成效的合作的基础上，将产生将水库排放纳入C核算框架的具体工具，这对行业和政府都具有关键的战略和经济意义，同时对内陆水域对北方生物群区域碳平衡的作用以及蓄水调节的景观变化如何影响这些北方水生网络的生物地球化学功能产生了根本的新见解。

The proposed research program combines the need to develop detailed carbon budgets for specific reservoirs, in order to quantify the C footprint associated to hydroelectric generation and to understand the underlying processes, with a broader perspective that places hydroelectric development as a landscape alteration that fundamentally modifies the biogeochemical functioning of aquatic networks and therefore alters the regional C balance in the boreal biome of Québec. In order to address these two complementary but conceptually and practically distinct issues, the proposed CRD program, in partnership with Hydro Québec (HQ), is divided into four components: 1) The determination of the C footprint of the newly-created La Romaine hydroelectric development, as a unique case study of a reservoir cascade complex. 2) The determination of the C footprint (sinks and sources) for the ensemble of inland waters (lakes and rivers) of boreal Québec, and how this footprint may shift under future scenarios of climate and environmental change. This component represents the necessary first step in order to integrate reservoirs within a network perspective at the whole landscape scale. 3) Modeling reservoir emissions based on reservoir age, location and local features based on a combination new measurements from reservoirs across the territory and existing long-term data sets. 4) Determining the current GHG emissions of the ensemble of reservoirs located in boreal Québec, and deriving a first order estimate of how hydroelectric development may have altered the aquatic C footprint at the regional scale, and how this C footprint may shift regionally with time, under future scenarios of climate and environmental change. The proposed research builds on 15 years of fruitful collaboration with HQ, and will yield concrete tools for the inclusion of reservoir emissions within C accounting frameworks, which are of key strategic and economic importance for industry and government alike, while yielding fundamental new insight on the role of inland waters on regional C balances in the boreal biome, and on how landscape transformations mediated by impoundment influence the biogeochemical functioning of these boreal aquatic networks.