Stream oxygen flux and metabolism determined with the open water and aquatic eddy covariance techniques

Abstract

AbstractWe quantified oxygen flux in a coastal stream in Virginia using a novel combination of the conventional open water technique and the aquatic eddy covariance technique. The latter has a smaller footprint (sediment surface area that contributes to the flux; ∼ 10 m2), allowing measurements to be made at multiple sites within the footprint of the open water technique (∼ 1000 m2). Sites included an unvegetated stream pool with cohesive sediment, a macrophyte bed with sandy sediment, and an unvegetated sand bed with rippled bedforms. Nighttime eddy covariance oxygen uptake was always smaller than uptake produced by the open water technique. At the pool and unvegetated sand bed sites, nighttime eddy covariance uptake was 20‐fold smaller than open water uptake. At the macrophyte bed site, gross primary production quantified with the two techniques was similar but eddy covariance uptake was 2.4‐fold smaller. The difference in oxygen uptake between eddy covariance and open water techniques could not be accounted for by uncertainties in the gas transfer velocity but could be accounted for by anoxic groundwater inflow through stream banks outside of the eddy covariance footprint. Nighttime oxygen uptake was also measured with eddy covariance in a tidal freshwater part of the stream, where pore space in the sandy sediment near the sediment–water interface was flushed with stream water at peak water velocities. As a result of this advective hyporheic exchange, nighttime oxygen flux increased fourfold with a doubling of water velocity.