Gas transfert velocities in a tropical reservoir and its river downstream: Wind speed and rainfall effect

We have measured simultaneously the methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) surface concentrations and water–air fluxes by floating chambers (FC) in the Petit-Saut Reservoir (French Guiana) and its tidal river (Sinnamary River) downstream of the dam, during the two field experiments in wet (May 2003) and dry season (December 2003). The eddy covariance (EC) technique was also used for CO2 fluxes on the lake. The comparison of fluxes obtained by FC and EC showed little discrepancies mainly due to differences in measurements durations which resulted in different average wind speeds. When comparing the gas transfer velocity (k600) for a given wind speed, both methods gave similar results. On the lake and excluding rainy events, we obtained an exponential relationship between k600 and U10, with a significant intercept at 1.7 cm h− 1, probably due to thermal effects. Gas transfer velocity was also positively related to rainfall rates reaching 26.5 cm h−1 for a rainfall rate of 36 mm h− 1. During a 24-h experiment in dry season, rainfall accounted for as much as 25% of the k600. In the river downstream of the dam, k600 values were 3 to 4 times higher than on the lake, and followed a linear relationship with U10.