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Science 4 July 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5629, pp. 56 - 58
DOI: 10.1126/science.1086419
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Perspectives

GEOCHEMISTRY:
A New Story from the Ol' Man River

Venugopalan Ittekkot

Planting trees is one approach to reducing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But, as Ittekkot explains in his Perspective, converting croplands to forests in river catchments may actually reduce terrestrial carbon dioxide removal via chemical weathering and river transport. He highlights the report by Raymond and Cole, who have analyzed alkalinity data for the Mississippi River. Over the past 50 years, alkalinity export by the Mississippi has steadily increased, with the largest increase in tributaries with the highest percent land coverage in croplands. The process must be considered in studies of carbon dioxide sinks.

The author is at the Centre for Tropical Marine Ecology, Fahrenheitsstrasse 6, 28359 Bremen, Germany. E-mail: ittekkot{at}zmt.uni-bremen.de

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)