Sitka stream water column CH4 budget for the experimental stretch of a stream

The potentially important source and sinks terms for dissolved methane in the water column of the Sitka stream are shown in Figure 6. Previously calculated rates of inputs (benthic fluxes) and loss of dissolved CH4 through evasion to the atmosphere can be combined together with advection inputs and losses to yield a CH4 dynamics (budget) for any particular section of the stream.

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Figure 6. Simple box model used to calculate a CH4 budget for the Sitke stream experimental section; advection in + supply = advection out + removal (box adjusted after de Angelis & Scranton 1993)

The CH4 budget determined for the 2011 sampling period in an experimental stream section is summarized in Figure 7. Benthic fluxes were measured along a stream section 45 m long
with an area being ~ 200 m2. Positive fluxes of CH4 were found to occur at 30.9 % of the study area. Assuming that average benthic flux of methane across the sediment-water interface was 15.40 mg m-2 day-1, the benthic flux of 3081.39 mg CH4 day-1 should occur from the whole area of 200 m2. Average emission flux of CH4 across the water-air interface for all study sites was determined to be 14.47 ± 4.73 mg CH4 m-2 day-1. This value is slightly lower than the direct benthic flux of CH4 and suggests that some portion of methane released from the bottom sediments may contribute to increasing concentration of CH4 in the surface water. Average flow of the Sitka stream during time of benthic fluxes measurements was 0.351 m3s-1 (i. e. 351 L’1s-1). Therefore, we may expect that water column was enriched at least by 187.4 mg (i. e. 0.006 pg L-1) of CH4 from sediment at 45 m long section near study site IV during one day. Next study site V is located some 4 km downstream from the site IV. Average CH4 concentration difference in the stream water between these study sites was found to be 3.2 pg L-1 of CH4 indicating that CH4 supply exceeds slightly CH4 removal. Methane fluxes from the sediment would contribute to this concentration difference only by 0.6 pg L-1, thus, the immediate difference in the CH4 budget found between two studied sites IV and V indicates that there must likely be other sources of methane supply to the stream water (Fig. 7). This „missing source" seems to be relatively small (0.9 mg CH4 0.351 m-3s-1), however, net accumulation of CH4 in the stream water during 4 km section of the Sitka stream below study site IV was almost 78 g CH4 per one day.

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Figure 7. CH4 budget in mol day1 for a section of the Sitka stream between study sites IV and V (lenght ca 4 km). The arrows correspond to those depicted in Figure 6.