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The global abundance and size distribution of lakes, ponds, and impoundments
Abstract
One of the major impediments to the integration of lentic ecosystems into global environmental analyses has been fragmentary data on the extent and size distribution of lakes, ponds, and impoundments. We use new data sources, enhanced spatial resolution, and new analytical approaches to provide new estimates of the global abundance of surface-water bodies. A global model based on the Pareto distribution shows that the global extent of natural lakes is twice as large as previously known (304 million lakes; 4.2 million km2 in area) and is dominated in area by millions of water bodies smaller than 1 km2. Similar analyses of impoundments based on inventories of large, engineered dams show that impounded waters cover approximately 0.26 million km2. However, construction of low-tech farm impoundments is estimated to be between 0.1% and 6% of farm area worldwide, dependent upon precipitation, and represents ≫77,000 km2 globally, at present. Overall, about 4.6 million km2 of the earth's continental “land” surface (≫3%) is covered by water. These analyses underscore the importance of explicitly considering lakes, ponds, and impoundments, especially small ones, in global analyses of rates and processes.
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Cited by
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Pekel, J.-F., Cottam, A., Gorelick, N., & Belward, A. S. (2016) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature20584 · Cited by 5,513
Plumbing the Global Carbon Cycle: Integrating Inland Waters into the Terrestrial Carbon Budget
Cole, J. J., Prairie, Y. T., Caraco, N. F., McDowell, W. H., Tranvik, L. J., Striegl, R. G., Duarte, C. M., Kortelainen, P., Downing, J. A., Middelburg, J. J., et al. (2007) · Ecosystems · doi:10.1007/s10021-006-9013-8 · Cited by 3,941
Self-citationThe Global Methane Budget 2000–2017
Saunois, M., Stavert, A. R., Poulter, B., Bousquet, P., Canadell, J. G., Jackson, R. B., Raymond, P. A., Dlugokencky, E. J., Houweling, S., Patra, P. K., et al. (2019) · doi:10.5194/essd-2019-128 · Cited by 2,760
The Global Methane Budget 2000–2017
Saunois, M., Stavert, A. R., Poulter, B., Bousquet, P., Canadell, J. G., Jackson, R. B., Raymond, P. A., Dlugokencky, E. J., Houweling, S., Patra, P. K., et al. (2020) · Earth System Science Data · doi:10.5194/essd-12-1561-2020 · Cited by 2,711
High‐resolution mapping of the world's reservoirs and dams for sustainable river‐flow management
Lehner, B., Liermann, C. R., Revenga, C., Vörösmarty, C., Fekete, B., Crouzet, P., Döll, P., Endejan, M., Frenken, K., Magome, J., et al. (2011) · Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment · doi:10.1890/100125 · Cited by 2,515
Metadata
- Authors
- Downing, J. A., Prairie, Y. T., Cole, J. J., Duarte, C. M., Tranvik, L. J., Striegl, R. G., McDowell, W. H., Kortelainen, P., Caraco, N. F., Melack, J. M., & Middelburg, J. J.
- Venue
- Limnology and Oceanography
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-09
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 2388-2397
- ISSN
- 0024-3590 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2137734568
- Cited by
- 1,916
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 47.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Downing, J. A., Prairie, Y. T., Cole, J. J., Duarte, C. M., Tranvik, L. J., Striegl, R. G., McDowell, W. H., Kortelainen, P., Caraco, N. F., Melack, J. M., & Middelburg, J. J. (2006). The global abundance and size distribution of lakes, ponds, and impoundments. Limnology and Oceanography. https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.2006.51.5.2388
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