AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from lakes result from processes between the watershed, lake characteristics and the atmosphere. The organic matter loading from the watershed both provides carbon for the lake biota and in major part defines water clarity, which, in addition to wind and heat flux, is essential in thermocline formation. Thermal stratification suppresses the wind-induced momentum input to the surface water preventing effective mixing of gases throughout the water column. The lake biota process the organic matter, producing carbon dioxide (CO2) in oxic surface water and also methane (CH4) if the near-bottom water becomes anoxic, and thus influence the chemical properties of the water column. Finally, air-water GHG exchange occurs over a thin layer at the water surface. Lakes are typically supersaturated with CO2 and CH4 in relation to average atmospheric mixing ratios causing fluxes of these gases to the atmosphere. Even though lakes cover only 2 % of the world s land surface, it has been estimated that lakes release about 10 % of the carbon fixed annually by the terrestrial ecosystems back to the atmosphere. A critical parameter in the gas exchange estimates is the gas transfer velocity (k), which is governed by turbulence. The implementation of direct flux measurement using the eddy covariance (EC) technique allows the detailed measurements needed to estimate k. However, on lakes, the EC method is a novel subject and as of yet, there has been no published estimates of the error related to these measurements nor fully established set of accepted procedures. The aim of this thesis was to assess the current global CO2 evasion estimates from lakes to the atmosphere by comparing parameterizations for k and the significance of wind and heat flux to the gas transfer in small lakes. To improve future predictions of gas evasion from lakes, we focused on the changes in water clarity and how they affect water column physics and processes in the air-water interface. We used the EC method for the high precision data needed, and therefore also aimed to improve the EC methodology on lakes. The air-water gas transfer was related to both wind and heat loss during times of seasonal stratification, but only to wind during autumn overturn, and the mean value for k of CO2 was 6.0 cm h-1 in Lake Kuivajärvi. When wind-induced thermocline tilting and resulting spatial variability in surface water CO2 concentrations was accounted for, k derived from the measurements dropped to 5.2 cm h-1. This was still over twice the estimate (2.2 cm h-1) calculated with a widely used model for k in lakes suggesting that the global estimates of gas evasion from lakes might be underestimations. Unsolved question is that how important factor the thermocline tilting is in other lakes in defining spatial variability? Our results showed that k for CH4 was higher than for CO2, a result which has been reported in some other studies, but as of yet, no solid explanation has been found. Water clarity was a significant parameter defining the…