Spatial and seasonal variations of carbon emissions in an urban lake: Flux sensitivity and sampling optimization based on high-resolution measurements

Abstract

Understanding the dynamics of pCO2 and pCH4 is important for evaluating carbon emissions from the aquatic environment. While temporal dynamics of pCO2 and pCH4 have been extensively studied, there is a noticeable gap in the literature concerning their spatial characteristics. In this study, we used boat-mounted sensors to directly measure pCO2 and pCH4 with high spatial resolution across seasons in Xuanwu Lake (XWL), an urban lake in Nanjing, China. Additionally, water chemistries were measured at selected sites for correlation analysis. Sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the effects of measurement location and density on carbon flux estimates.