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Title: Large CO2 effluxes at night and during synoptic weather events significantly contribute to CO2 emissions from a reservoir

Journal Article · · Environmental Research Letters
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  2. Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States). Nicholas School of the Environment
  3. Cary Inst. of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY (United States)
  4. Univ. of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK (United States). Inst. of Arctic Biology
  5. Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology
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CO2 emissions from inland waters are commonly determined by indirect methods that are based on the product of a gas transfer coefficient and the concentration gradient at the air water interface (e.g., wind-based gas transfer models). The measurements of concentration gradient are typically collected during the day in fair weather throughout the course of a year. Direct measurements of eddy covariance CO2 fluxes from a large inland water body (Ross Barnett reservoir, Mississippi, USA) show that CO2 effluxes at night are approximately 70% greater than those during the day. At longer time scales, frequent synoptic weather events associated with extratropical cyclones induce CO2 flux pulses, resulting in further increase in annual CO2 effluxes by 16%. Therefore, CO2 emission rates from this reservoir, if these diel and synoptic processes are under-sampled, are likely to be underestimated by approximately 40%. Our results also indicate that the CO2 emission rates from global inland waters reported in the literature, when based on indirect methods, are likely underestimated. Field samplings and indirect modeling frameworks that estimate CO2 emissions should account for both daytime-nighttime efflux difference and enhanced emissions during synoptic weather events. Furthermore, the analysis here can guide carbon emission sampling to improve regional carbon estimates.

Research Organization:
Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0006967; SC0011461
OSTI ID:
1287223
Journal Information:
Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 11, Issue 6; ISSN 1748-9326
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 62 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (13)

Spatiotemporal Variability in Lake-Atmosphere Net CO 2 Exchange in the Littoral Zone of an Oligotrophic Lake journal April 2018
Factors controlling evaporation and the CO 2 flux over an open water lake in southwest of China on multiple temporal scales journal July 2018
Turbulence in a small arctic pond: Turbulence in an arctic pond journal July 2018
Carbon sink and source dynamics of a eutrophic deep lake using multiple flux observations over multiple years: Carbon sink and source dynamics journal March 2018
Effects of an Experimental Water-level Drawdown on Methane Emissions from a Eutrophic Reservoir journal September 2017
Seasonal variations and intricate diel differences in the physio-chemical parameters and CO2 emissions from a typical karst groundwater-fed reservoir in southern China journal July 2019
The Associations Between Clinical Respiratory Outcomes and Ambient Wildfire Smoke Exposure Among Pediatric Asthma Patients at National Jewish Health, 2012–2015 journal June 2019
Generalized Additive Models of Climatic and Metabolic Controls of Subannual Variation in pCO 2 in Productive Hardwater Lakes journal June 2018
Parameterizing Air‐Water Gas Exchange in the Shallow, Microtidal New River Estuary journal July 2019
Assessment of methane and carbon dioxide emissions in two sub-basins of a small acidic bog lake artificially divided 30 years ago journal September 2018
CO2 Flux from Volcanic Lakes in the Western Group of the Azores Archipelago (Portugal) journal March 2019
Carbon Dioxide Emissions from the Littoral Zone of a Chinese Reservoir journal July 2017
The monsoon effect on energy and carbon exchange processes over a highland lake in the southwest of China journal January 2018

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
carbon emissions from lakes
eddy covariance flux of CO2
wind-based gas transfer
lake-atmosphere interactions
southern inland water
surface-energy budget
united-states
carbon-cycle
lake
flux
evaporation
exchange
methane
air