Our working hypotesis suggested that along with the longitudinal profile of a stream, slope and flow conditions also change together with corresponding settling velocity, sediment composition and organic matter content. Thus, according to this prediction, sediment with prevalence of fine-grained particles containg higher amount of organic matter should dominate at the downstream stretches. Moreover, due to prevalence of anoxic environment, production of methane and its emissions was expected to be also higher here compared to that from upstream stretches. Based on our findings, it seems that this presumption is valid for the methane. In addition, we found higher methane concentrations in both the surface and interstitial water at the uppermost locality I compared to lower situated locality II. Similar situation with high methane concentration in the upstream part with subsequent decline further downstream was also reported from USA by Lilley et al. (1996). Dissimilarity of this first stretch is apparent in a comparison with the next, downstream laying stretch (locality II), represented by profile with steep valley and high slope. Generally, there were found very low methane concentrations either in surface or interstitial water and fluxes of emissions to atmosphere were also very low.

Flux rates of gaseous emissions into atmosphere depend on partial pressure of particular gas in the atmosphere and its concentration in a water, water temperature and further on the water depth and flow velocity. Thus, maximum peak of emissions may be expected during summer period and in well torrential stretch of the river. Silvennoinen et al. (2008), for example, found that the most upstream river site, surrounded by forests and drained peatlands, released significant amounts of CO2 and CH4. The downstream river sites surrounded by agricultural soils released significant amounts of N2O whereas the CO2 and CH4 concentrations were low compared to the upstream site. When consider seasonal distribution of methane emissions, it is clear, in concordance with above mentioned presumption, that majority of methane emissions was relesed during a warm period of the year (81%). Effect of temperature on methane production was also observed in southeastern USA where the most methane reased to the atmosphere during warm months (Pulliam 1993). In addition, close correlation between methane emissions and temperature was reported also from south part of Baltic Sea; the temperature has been found to be a key factor driving methane emissions (Heyer & Berger 2000).

These findings also indicate that we should be very carefull in making any generalization in total emissions estimation for any given stream or river. Even though some predictions can be made based on gas concentrations measured in the surface or interstitial water, results may be very different. From this point, noteworthy was locality IV; enormous concentrations of a methane found in the deep interstitial water were caused probably by very fine, clayed sediment containing high amount of organic carbon, as well as high DOC concentrations. Supersaturation led also to the enrichment of the surface water with methane — such places may be considered as very important methane sources for surface stream and, consequently source of emissons to the atmosphere.