Strong Subseasonal Variability of Oxic Methane Production Challenges Methane Budgeting in Freshwater Lakes
Methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) accumulation in the well-oxygenated lake epilimnion enhances the diffusive atmospheric CH<sub>4</sub> emission. Both lateral transport and in situ oxic methane production (OMP) have been suggested as potential sources. While the latter has been recently supported by increasing evidence, quantifying the exact contribution of OMP to atmospheric emissions remains challenging. Based on a large high-resolution field data set collected during 2019-2020 in the deep stratified Lake Stechlin and on three-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling, we improved existing CH<sub>4</sub> budgets by resolving each component of the mass balance model at a seasonal scale and therefore better constrained the residual OMP. All terms in our model showed a large temporal variability at scales from intraday to seasonal, and the modeled OMP was most sensitive to the surface CH<sub>4</sub> flux estimates. Future efforts are needed to reduce the uncertainties in estimating OMP rates using the mass balance approach by increasing the frequency of atmospheric CH<sub>4</sub> flux measurements.
Authors
- Hans‐Peter Grossart (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9141-0325)
- Damien Bouffard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2005-9718)
- Jana Milucka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4013-230X)
- Georgiy Kirillin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7337-3586)
- Sina Schorn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1655-1304)
- Manchun Kang
- Tomy Doda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7110-8540)
- Liu Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8056-2550)
- Xin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0184-5868)
- Xiaotao Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9419-308X)
Institutions
- Yunnan Normal University (CN)
- University of Potsdam (DE)
- China International Science and Technology Cooperation (CN)
- National Institute of Hospital Administration (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering (CN)
- Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (DE)
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (DE)
- Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (CH)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Published
- 2024-10-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c07413
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.75
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Natural Science Foundation of Yunnan Province
- Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology Department
- Major Science and Technology Projects in Yunnan Province