Carbon leaking from land into streams

Rivers and streams in the United States are releasing substantially more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than previously thought, Yale University researchers have found.

These findings could change the way scientists model the movement of carbon between land, water and the atmosphere.

“These rivers breathe a lot of carbon,” said researchers. “They are a source of carbon dioxide, just like we breathe out carbon dioxide and like smokestacks emit carbon dioxide.

"This has never been systematically estimated from a region as large as the United States.”