Lake Metabolism: Comparison of Lake Metabolic Rates Estimated from a Diel CO2- and the Common Diel O2-Technique.

Lake metabolism is a key factor for the understanding of turnover of energy and of organic and inorganic matter in lake ecosystems. Long-term time series on metabolic rates are commonly estimated from diel changes in dissolved oxygen. Here we present long-term data on metabolic rates based on diel changes in total dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) utilizing an open-water diel CO2-technique. Metabolic rates estimated with this technique and the traditional diel O2-technique agree well in alkaline Lake Illmensee (pH of ~8.5), although the diel changes in molar CO2 concentrations are much smaller than those of the molar O2 concentrations. The open-water diel CO2- and diel O2-techniques provide independent measures of lake metabolic rates that differ in their sensitivity to transport processes. Hence, the combination of both techniques can help to constrain uncertainties arising from assumptions on vertical fluxes due to gas exchange and turbulent diffusion. This is particularly important for estimates of lake respiration rates because these are much more sensitive to assumptions on gradients in vertical fluxes of O2 or DIC than estimates of lake gross primary production. Our data suggest that it can be advantageous to estimate respiration rates assuming negligible gradients in vertical fluxes rather than including gas exchange with the atmosphere but neglecting vertical mixing in the water column. During two months in summer the average lake net production was close to zero suggesting at most slightly autotrophic conditions. However, the lake emitted O2 and CO2 during the entire time period suggesting that O2 and CO2 emissions from lakes can be decoupled from the metabolism in the near surface layer.

Metal contaminant fluxes across the sediment water interface.

To date, most estimates of contaminant fluxes across the sediment/water interface in risk assessments have been done using diffusive flux models. However, the reliability of these is limited as the overall flux from the sediment may have contributions caused by advection and bioturbation. We found through a comparison of modelled fluxes versus measured fluxes, that the methods Benthic Flux Chamber and surface leaching tests in a risk assessment context showed similar magnitude while calculated fluxes deviated at least by a factor of 100 from measured fluxes. This may be explained by the flux contribution in connection with bioturbation. The chamber-measured fluxes of copper were low compared to those of zinc and cobalt, but this is consistent with leaching tests that indicated copper to be more strongly bound. Risk assessments based on total concentrations may be misleading.