Carbon dioxide evasion from headwater systems strongly contributes to the total export of carbon from a small boreal lake catchment

Abstract

Inland waters are hotspots for carbon (C) cycling and therefore important for landscape C budgets. Small streams and lakes are particularly important; however, quantifying C fluxes is difficult and has rarely been done for the entire aquatic continuum, composed of connected streams and lakes within the same catchment. We investigated carbon dioxide (CO2) evasion and fluvial fluxes of dissolved inorganic carbon and dissolved organic carbon (DIC and DOC) in stream and lake systems within the 2.3km2 catchment of a small boreal lake. Our results show pronounced spatial and temporal variability in C fluxes even at a small spatial scale. C loss from the catchment through CO2 evasion from headwaters for the total open water-sampling period was 9.7g C m-2 catchment, dominating the total catchment C loss (including CO2 evasion, DIC, and DOC export from the lake, which were 2.7, 0.2, and 5.2g C m-2 catchment, respectively). Aquatic CO2 evasion was dominated by headwater streams that occupy ~0.1% of the catchment but contributed 65% to the total aquatic CO2 evasion from the catchment. The importance of streams was mainly an effect of the higher gas transfer velocities than compared to lakes (median, 67 and 2.2cmh-1, respectively). Accurately estimating the contribution of C fluxes from headwater streams, particularly the temporal and spatial dynamics in their gas transfer velocity, is key to landscape-scale C budgets. This study demonstrates that CO2 evasion from headwaters can be the major pathway of C loss from boreal catchments, even at a small spatial scale. Key Points Headwater CO2 evasion strongly contribute to C loss from a small lake catchment The gas transfer velocity mainly regulates aquatic CO2 evasion Spatial and temporal dynamics of C flux can be large at small spatial scales