Water and carbon fluxes from savanna ecosystems of the Volta River watershed, West Africa

The fluxes of water and carbon from terrestrial ecosystems are coupled via the process of photosynthesis. Constraining the annual water cycle therefore allows first order estimates of annual photosynthetic carbon flux, providing that the components of evapotranspiration can be separated. In this study, an isotope mass-balance equation is utilized to constrain annual evaporation flux, which in turn, is used to determine the amount of water transferred to the atmosphere by plant transpiration. The Volta River watershed in West Africa is dominated by woodland and savanna ecosystems with a significant proportion of C4 vegetation. Annually, the Volta watershed receives 380 km3 of rainfall, 50% of which is returned to the atmosphere via transpiration. An annual photosynthetic carbon flux of 170 × 1012 g C yr− 1 or 428 g C m− 2 was estimated to be associated with this water vapor flux. Independent estimates of heterotrophic soil respiration slightly exceeded the NPP estimate from this study, implying that the exchange of carbon between the Volta River watershed and the atmosphere was close to being in balance or that terrestrial ecosystems were a small annual source of CO2 to the atmosphere. In addition to terrestrial carbon flux, the balance of photosynthesis and respiration in Volta Lake was also examined. The lake was found to evade carbon dioxide to the atmosphere although the magnitude of the flux was much smaller than that of the terrestrial ecosystems.