Temporal variation in methane emissions in a shallow lake at a southern mid latitude during high and low rainfall periods

The global methane (CH4) emission of lakes is estimated at between 6 and 16 % of total natural CH4 emissions. However, these values have a high uncertainty due to the wide variety of lakes with important differences in their morphological, biological, and physicochemical parameters and the relatively scarse data from southern mid-latitude lakes. For these reasons, we studied CH4 fluxes and CH4 dissolved in water in a typical shallow lake in the Pampean Wetland, Argentina, during four periods of consecutive years (April 2011–March 2015) preceded by different rainfall conditions. Other water physicochemical parameters were measured and meteorological data were reported. We identified three different states of the lake throughout the study as the result of the irregular alternation between high and low rainfall periods, with similar water temperature values but with important variations in dissolved oxygen, chemical oxygen demand, water turbidity, electric conductivity, and water level. As a consequence, marked seasonal and interannual variations occurred in CH4 dissolved in water and CH4 fluxes from the lake. These temporal variations were best reflected by water temperature and depth of the Secchi disk, as a water turbidity estimation, which had a significant double correlation with CH4 dissolved in water. The mean CH4 fluxes values were 0.22 and 4.09 mg/m2/h for periods with low and high water turbidity, respectively. This work suggests that water temperature and turbidity measurements could serve as indicator parameters of the state of the lake and, therefore, of its behavior as either a CH4 source or sink.