An international team of researchers used several miniRUEDIs to study the 3D transport of dissolved gases in a eutrophic lake. The water in the littoral zone cools faster during the night and therefore causes a lateral «syphon stream» that transports water along the sediment, and which is balanced by corresponding water flow at the surface. Krypton was injected into the littoral water to track the syphon stream, and to quantify the transport of other, naturally abundant gases in the lake. High-frequency miniRUEDI measurements demonstrate that daily convective horizontal circulation generates littoral-pelagic transport one order of magnitude larger than typical horizontal fluxes assumed in previous gas budgets. These lateral fluxes are sufficient to redistribute gases at the basin-scale and generate concentration anomalies reported in other lakes.

Tomy Doda, et al., “Lake surface cooling drives littoral-pelagic exchange of dissolved gases”, Science Advances, 2024. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi0617