Global multi-scale segmentation of continental and coastal waters from the watersheds to the continental margins
Type
ArticleKAUST Grant Number
KUK-C1-017-12Date
2012-10-04Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/598414
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Past characterizations of the land–ocean continuum were constructed either from a continental perspective through an analysis of watershed river basin properties (COSCATs: COastal Segmentation and related CATchments) or from an oceanic perspective, through a regionalization of the proximal and distal continental margins (LMEs: large marine ecosystems). Here, we present a global-scale coastal segmentation, composed of three consistent levels, that includes the whole aquatic continuum with its riverine, estuarine and shelf sea components. Our work delineates comprehensive ensembles by harmonizing previous segmentations and typologies in order to retain the most important physical characteristics of both the land and shelf areas. The proposed multi-scale segmentation results in a distribution of global exorheic watersheds, estuaries and continental shelf seas among 45 major zones (MARCATS: MARgins and CATchments Segmentation) and 149 sub-units (COSCATs). Geographic and hydrologic parameters such as the surface area, volume and freshwater residence time are calculated for each coastal unit as well as different hypsometric pro- files. Our analysis provides detailed insights into the distributions of coastal and continental shelf areas and how they connect with incoming riverine fluxes. The segmentation is also used to re-evaluate the global estuarine CO2 flux at the air–water interface combining global and regional average emission rates derived from local studies.Citation
Laruelle GG, Dürr HH, Lauerwald R, Hartmann J, Slomp CP, et al. (2012) Global multi-scale segmentation of continental and coastal waters from the watersheds to the continental margins. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci Discuss 9: 11319–11361. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/hessd-9-11319-2012.Sponsors
The research leading to these results hasreceived funding from the European Union’s Seventh FrameworkProgram (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 283080,project GEOCARBON, by King Abdullah University of Scienceand Technology (KAUST) Center-in-Development Award toUtrecht University: project No. KUK-C1-017-12; by the governmentof the Brussels-Capital Region (Brains Back to Brusselsaward to PR), by the German Science Foundation DFG (DFGprojectHA 4472/6-1) and the Cluster of Excellence “CliSAP”(DFG, EXC177), Universit¨at Hamburg. H. H. D¨urr receivedfunding from NSERC (Canada Excellence Research Chair inEcohydrology – Philippe van Cappellen). N. Goossens is fundedby a FRIA (FRS-FNRS) grant.Publisher
Copernicus GmbHae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.5194/hessd-9-11319-2012