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Methane emission from aquatic ecosystems of Mexico City

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Abstract

Mexico City is a large city, populated by 8.8 million inhabitants. This population density, combined with poor wastewater management, results in aquatic ecosystems receiving a large volume of wastewater which may promote methane (CH4) emission. We measured water quality and CH4 emission from 11 aquatic ecosystems in Mexico City during 1 year, including reservoirs, rivers, lakes, canals and chinampas (system of floating garden on shallow lakes). The total CH4 emission from aquatic ecosystems was estimated as 3679 Mg CH4 year−1, which represents 3.5 % of the annual CH4 emission of Mexico City. The main contributors are chinampas (33 %), followed by lakes (27 %), reservoirs (19 %), rivers (12 %) and canals (9 %). Water quality indicators were positively correlated with CH4 emission, therefore a decrease in untreated wastewater discharge may result in a significant reduction of the greenhouse gas footprint of Mexico City, after a transitional period during which the organic content of the sediment would be degraded.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) and the Mexico City Institute of Science and Technology (ICYT-DF) through project grant ICYTDF-294/2009. Authors are grateful to the support received from the Water System of Mexico City (SACM) and particularly to Ramón Aguirre Díaz, General Director and to Ruben Pineda Migueles, Head of Unit. Authors K. Martinez-Cruz, R. Gonzalez-Valencia and Y. Belmonte-Izquierdo, received grant-aided support from CONACYT (Grant Numbers 233369, 266244 and 243319, respectively). The authors are thankful to N. Escobar-Orozco for technical assistance in sampling and analyzing samples. The authors also thank R. Ramirez-Vargas and J. Corona-Hernández for assistance on the elaboration of figures.

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    1. Departamento de Biotecnologia y Bioingenieria, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politecnico Nacional (Cinvestav-IPN), Av. IPN 2508, 07360, Mexico DF, Mexico

      Karla Martinez-Cruz, Rodrigo Gonzalez-Valencia, Fernando Plascencia-Hernandez, Yadira Belmonte-Izquierdo & Frederic Thalasso

    2. Experimental Limnology, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Alte Fischerhütte 2, OT Neuglobsow, 16775, Stechlin, Germany

      Karla Martinez-Cruz & Armando Sepulveda-Jauregui

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    K. Martinez-Cruz and R. Gonzalez-Valencia contributed equally to the work.

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    Martinez-Cruz, K., Gonzalez-Valencia, R., Sepulveda-Jauregui, A. et al. Methane emission from aquatic ecosystems of Mexico City. Aquat Sci 79, 159–169 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00027-016-0487-y

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