Enhancing Surface Methane Fluxes from an Oligotrophic Lake: Exploring the Microbubble Hypothesis - Kam Tang (Environmental Science & Technology, 2015)
Water-air exchange of carbon dioxide and methane is an important component of the global carbon cycle. We showed that methane flux across the water-air interface was 2.5 times stronger than carbon dioxide flux, and was also higher than that predicted by Fickian diffusion. Using a systematic analysis approach we showed that microbubbles originating from atmospheric bubble entrainment and/or gas supersaturation stripped the water of methane and greatly enhanced methane outflux. The results have significant implications for greenhouse gas emission from aquatic environments and climate regulation.