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Recent, parallel developments in the study of freshwater and marine ecosystems have provided evidence that net heterotrophic systems (those in which respiratory organic matter destruction exeeds photosynthetic production) are more prevalent than hitherto believed, including most rivers, oligo- to mesotrophic lakes and some oligotrophic regions of the ocean. In parallel, these aquatic ecosystems have been shown to act as CO₂ sources to the atmosphere, as expected from the heterotrophic nature of the communities they contain. The prevalence of net heterotrophic aquatic ecosystems indicates that they must receive significant inputs of organic carbon from adjacent ecosystems, assigning an important role to the lateral exchanges of carbon between land and aquatic ecosystems, between coastal and open ocean ecosystems, as well as internal redistribution within large or complex aquatic ecosystems in …