Little lakes and large lakes: The first global inland water eddy covariance flux synthesis

Current estimates of energy and trace gases from inland waters often rely on limited point in time measurements. Therefore, short time variation of fluxes and mechanism controlling the fluxes are particularly understudied. Here, we present the results of a global synthesis of eddy fluxes from 29 globally distributed aquatic sites. The objective of this study was to quantify the magnitudes and variation of energy and CO2 fluxes and investigate their responses to environmental controls across half-hourly to monthly time scales. The coupled observations of in-lake physical and biogeochemical parameters with meteorology and eddy covariance fluxes were analyzed using decomposed correlation and wavelength coherence analysis to quantify the critical time scales that are associated with variation of energy fluxes, CO2 emission, and related drivers. The rates of fluxes were synthesized according to time scale, climate, and water body type. The diurnal cycles of both energy and CO2 fluxes variation were attributed to wind speed, solar radiation cycle, vapor pressure deficit, temperature gradients at water-air interface, and metabolism. Weekly time scales of variations were correlated with synoptic weather patterns. The monthly sums of energy fluxes showed a latitudinal gradient with the maxima observed in mid-latitude waterbodies. We found an inconsistent latitudinal pattern of monthly CO2 fluxes. Instead, we found correlation with proxies of lake productivity suggesting lake-specific characteristics play an important role in controlling flux magnitudes and variation. The results presented here highlight the importance of quantifying short-term variation of energy and trace gases fluxes towards improving the understanding of the water and carbon cycles and linked ecological processes.