Warmer global temperatures likely are the cause of higher levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in freshwater draining from upland catchments in the UK. Freeman et al (2001) report increasing levels of DOC being driven from peat-accumulating wetlands and into the ocean by surface water. This process is likely to increase with increasing temperature and represents a substantial movement of organic carbon from wetland ecosystems to ocean ecosystems. Understanding the consequences of the carbon translocation will be important to monitoring and projecting future carbon reservoirs.
Reference
Freeman, C., C. D. Evans, D. T. Monteith, B. Reynolds, and N. Fenner, 2001: Export of organic carbon from peat soils. Nature, 412, 785.