Temporal and spatial carbon dioxide concentration patterns in a small boreal lake in relation to ice cover dynamics

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emission estimates from inland waters commonly neglect the ice-cover season. To account for CO2 accumulation below ice and consequent emissions into the atmosphere at ice-melt we combined automatically-monitored and manually- sampled spatially-distributed CO2 concentration measurements from a small boreal ice-covered lake in Sweden. In early winter, CO2 accumulated continuously below ice, whereas, in late winter, CO2 concentrations remained rather constant. At ice-melt, two CO2 concentration peaks were recorded, the first one reflecting lateral CO2 transport within the upper water column, and the second one reflecting vertical CO2 transport from bottom waters. We estimated that 66%–85% of the total CO2 accumulated in the water below ice left the lake at ice-melt, while the remainder was stored in bottom waters. Our results imply that CO2 accumulation under ice and emissions at ice-melt are more dynamic than previously reported, and thus need to be more accurately integrated into annual CO2 emission estimates from inland waters.