Recently, controversies about whether hydropower is still a clean energy have been arisen up with the studies about high CO(2) emission flux from hydroelectric reservoirs in boreal and tropical regions. In this study, four subtropical reservoirs and their related reaches, draining on karstic area in southwest of China, were investigated to understand their CO(2) emission, with monthly sampling strategy from July 2007 to June 2008. pCO(2) values in the surface water of these reservoirs ranged from 38 to 3300 mu atm, indicating that reservoir surface could be not only source but also sink to atmosphere CO(2) in different seasons. In Hongfeng reservoir, the flux of CO(2) from surface water varied from -9 to 70 mmol m(-2) d(-2) with an average of 15 mmol m(-2) d(-2), and in Baihua reservoir, it had a range from -8 to 77 mmol m(-2) d(-2) with an average of 24 mmol m(-2) d(-2). Hongyan reservoir had similar average flux of CO(2) to Baihua reservoir. Xiuwen had the highest average flux of CO(2) with a value of 47 mmol m(-2) d(-2) among the studied reservoirs. Downstream the dams discharged by hydropower generation from these reservoirs generally had quite high flux of CO(2), with an average of 489 +/- 297 mmol m(-2) d(-2), which is close to those from tropical rivers. This means that water releasing from these reservoirs would be an important way for CO(2) emission into atmosphere. The results showed that dam construction has significant impacts on the river water chemistry, with abrupt changes in pCO(2), DO, T, pH and Slc in surface water and their outlets. In addition, with the development of thermal gradient in warm seasons, water chemistry along the water column of reservoirs also showed seasonal variations, except in Xiuwen reservoir which only has daily storage capacity. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Publication name	ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT　Volume:45 　Issue:23 　Pages:3827-3834　 Published:JUL 2011
Author(s)	Wang, FS; Wang, BL; Liu, CQ; Wang, YC; Guan, J; Liu, XL; Yu, YX
Corresponding author	WANG Fushun  fswang@shu.edu.cn  Shanghai Univ, Mailbox 144,99 Shangda Rd, Shanghai 200444, Peoples R China
Author(s) from IGCAS	WANG Baoli,  LIU Congqiang, GUAN Jin, LIU Xiaolong,

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