Air-water CO2 Fluxes In Seasonal Hypoxia-influenced Green Bay, Lake Michigan

Peng Lin, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, School of Freshwater Sciences, Milwaukee, WI, United States, Jeffrey Val Klump, Univ Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States and Laodong Guo, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, United States
Abstract:
Increasing anthropogenic nutrient enrichment has led to seasonal hypoxia in Green Bay, the largest freshwater estuary in the Laurentian Great Lakes, but change in carbon dynamics associated with the development of hypoxia remains poorly understood. Variations in alkalinity, abundance of carbon species, and air-water CO2 fluxes were quantified under contrasting hypoxic conditions during summer 2014. Green Bay was characterized with high pH (average 8.62 ± 0.16 in August), high DIC concentrations (2113 - 3213 µmol/kg) and high pCO2 in the water column. pCO2 was mostly >700 µatm in June, resulting in a net CO2 source to the air, while pCO2 was mostly <650 µatm in August when hypoxic conditions occurred in Green Bay. In central Green Bay, pCO2 was the highest during both sampling months, accompanying by low dissolved oxygen (DO) and lower pH in the water column. In August, pCO2 was inversely correlated with DOC concentration and increased with DOC/DOP ratio, suggesting a control by organic matter on air-water CO2 dynamics and consumption of DO in Green Bay. Positive CO2 fluxes to the atmosphere during August were only observed in northern bay but a CO2 sink was found in southern Green Bay (~40% of study area) with high biological production and terrestrial DOM. Daily CO2 flux ranged from 10.9 to 48.5 mmol-C m-2 d-1 in June with an average of 18.29 ± 7.44 mmol-C m-2 d-1, whereas it varied from 1.82 ± 1.18 mmol m-2 d-1 in the north to -2.05 ± 1.89 mmol m-2 d-1 in the south of Green Bay in August. Even though strong biological production reduced the CO2 emission, daily CO2 fluxes from Green Bay to the air were as high as 7.4 × 107 mole-C in June and 4.6 × 106 mole-C in August, suggesting a significant role of high-DIC lakes in global CO2 budget and cycling.