Reservoir GHG

Hydroelectric Reservoir Greenhouse Gas Exchange

Canada, and Quebec in particular, has tremendous potential for the production of hydroelectrical power. However, the introduction of reservoirs to northern environments for the production of hydroelectric power results in the flooding of the existing boreal landscape. To date, there has been much research on the gross greenhouse gas emissions from existing reservoirs. For the first time, we are examining the net emissions by treating the reservoir creation as a problem of land use change.

The Problem:

We ask the question: ”what is the net difference between the landscape scale exchange of GHGs before and after the reservoir, and how does that net difference change over time from when the reservoir was first created to when it reaches a steady-state condition?”. This research is funded through an NSERC-CRD grant (>$1.4M) to Strachan, N. Roulet and M. Kalacska in partnership with Hydro Quebec. The AER Lab operated four eddy covariance towers to document the time series of CO2 fluxes; one is located on an island within the reservoir and continuously measures the exchange from the water surface of the reservoir over a flooded forest, the second is within an unburned mature black spruce forested area outside of the reservoir representing an analog of the dominant pre-flooded cover type, the third is within a peatland system, representing an analog of the second dominant pre-flooded cover type and the fourth is within a 7-yr old burned jack pine forest representing the newer end of forest succession. These measurements are used to develop and validate ecosystem models to simulate the past and future exchanges of CO2, CH4 and H2O from the terrestrial ecosystems that have been flooded. The overall goal of this research is to produce a scientifically credible estimate of the effect of a boreal reservoir on the net emission of GHGs following the development of sufficient scientific understanding of the problem.

Publications and theses:

Golub, M., Koupaei-Abyazani, N., Vesala, T., Mammarella, I., Ojala, A., Bohrer, G., Weyhenmeyer, G.A., Blanken, P.D., Eugster, W., Koebsch, F., Chen, J., Czajkowski, K., Deshmukh, C., Guerin, F., Heiskanen, J., Humphreys, E., Jonsson, A., Karlsson, J., Kling, G., Lee, X., Liu, H., Lohila, A., Lundin, E., Morin, T., Podgrajsek, E., Provenzale, M., Rutgersson, A., Sachs, T., Sahlee, E., Serca, D., Shao, C., Spence, C., Strachan, I.B., Xiao, W., and Desai, A.R., 2023. Diel, seasonal, and inter-annual variation in carbon dioxide effluxes from lakes and reservoirs. Environmental Research Letters 18 034046, doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acb834

Fournier, J., Thiboult, A., Nadeau, D.F., Vercauteren, N., Anctil, F., Parent, A-C., Strachan, I.B. and Tremblay, A., 2021. Evaporation from boreal reservoirs: A comparison between eddy covariance observations and estimations relying on limited data. Hydrological Processes 35(8):1-19 DOI: 10.1002/hyp.14335

Wang, W., Roulet, N.T., Kim, Y., Strachan, I.B., del Georgio, P. Prairie, Y., and Tremblay, A., 2018. Modelling CO2 emissions from water surface of a boreal hydroelectric reservoir. Science of the Total Environment 612: 392-404. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.203

Irambona, C., Music, B., Nadeau, D.F., Mahdi, T.F., and Strachan, I.B., 2018. Impacts of boreal hydroelectric reservoirs on seasonal climate and precipitation recycling as simulated by the CRCM5: a case study of the La Grande river watershed, Canada. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 131(3-4): 1529-1544. doi:10.1007/s00704-016-2010-8; published on-line Dec 15, 2016.

Strachan, I.B., Tremblay, A., Pelletier, L., Tardif, S., Turpin, C. and Nugent, K.A., 2016. Does the creation of a Boreal hydroelectric reservoir result in a net change in evaporation? Journal of Hydrology 540: 886-899.

Wang, W., Roulet, N.T., Strachan, I.B., and Tremblay, A., 2016. Modelling surface energy fluxes and thermal dynamics of a seasonally ice-covered hydroelectric reservoir. Science of the Total Environment 550: 793-805

Kim, Y., Roulet, N.T., Li, C., Frolking, S., Strachan, I.B., Peng, C., Teodoru, C.R., Prairie, Y.T., and Tremblay, A., 2016. Simulating carbon dioxide exchange in boreal ecosystems flooded by reservoirs. Ecological Modelling 327: 1-17.

Strachan, I.B., Pelletier, L. and Bonneville, M-C., 2016. Interannual variability in water table level controls net ecosystem carbon dioxide exchange in a boreal peatland. Biogeochemistry 127: 99-111.

Kim, Y., Roulet, N.T., Peng, G., Li, C., Frolking, S., Strachan, I.B., and Tremblay, A., 2014. Multi-year carbon dioxide flux simulations for mature Canadian black spruce forests and ombrotrophic bogs using Forest-DNDC. Boreal Environment Research 19(5-6): 417-440.

Tremblay, A., Tardif, S., Strachan, I.B., and Turpin, C., 2014. Net water evaporation from the Eastmain-1 reservoir. Hydro Review 33(5): 52-60.

Teodoru, C., Bastien, J., Bonneville, M-C., del Giorgio, P.A., Demarty, M., Garneau, M., Hélie, J-F., Pelletier, L., Prairie, Y.T., Roulet, N.T., Strachan, I.B., and Tremblay, A., 2012. The first complete carbon budget for a newly-created boreal hydroelectric reservoir: net carbon footprint of the Eastmain-1 reservoir. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 26: GB2016, doi:10.1029/2011GB004187.

Tremblay, A., Bastien, J., Strachan, I.B., and Bonneville, M-C., 2010. Three methods to study CO2 and CH4 fluxes at Eastmain 1 reservoir, Canada. International Journal on Hydropower and Dams, 17(4): 78-83.

Bonneville, M-C., and Strachan, I.B., 2008. Measuring GHG emissions - the use of eddy covariance techniques. International Water Power and Dam Construction 60(9): 22-25.

Carlomagno Soto 2015 . “Hyperspectral remote sensing investigations of vegetation in Northern Peatlands” (as co-supervisor w. M. Kalacska). 145 pp. MSc thesis, McGill University.

Julie deGea 2015. “Phenology of vegetation light-use efficiency and reflectance: experiment over two boreal ecosystems” (as co-supervisor w. M. Kalacska). 92 pp. MSc thesis, McGill University.

Kelly Nugent 2013. “Carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy fluxes of a recently burned boreal jack pine stand in north‐western Québec, Canada” 128 pp. MSc thesis, McGill University.

Cheryl Rogers 2011. “Remote sensing of light use efficiency in a boreal forest and peatland in James Bay, Quebec” 100 pp. MSc thesis, McGill University.

Marie-Eve Lemieux 2010. “From forest to lake: effect of hydroelectric reservoir impoundment on the net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide” 131 pp. MSc thesis, McGill University.