Damming of a mighty river weakens CO2 uptake capacity of the East China Sea

Human activities have greatly altered the export of terrestrial materials. However, a clear link between river discharge and coastal ocean carbon cycle has not been established, nor do we know how human engineering of water resources impacts ocean CO2 uptake. Here we report strong correlations between Changjiang river discharge, river plume area in summer, and CO2 uptake in the East China Sea (ECS), which enables the assessment that a 17% reduction in CO2 uptake has resulted from the 10% reduction in discharge since the beginning of water impoundment in the Three-Gorges Dam. This constitutes strong evidence that human activity has changed the carbon cycle in one of the largest marginal seas in the world. The CO2 uptake capacity of the ECS will continue to decrease as the result of a predicted shrink of the plume area during flood season due to increased reservoir evaporation and flood regulation, increased agriculture and industrial water use, and future transport of water to the semiarid northern China.