Abstract
Field investigations were performed to examine environmental factors (wind speed, water temperature, salinity, total alkalinity (TA), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and community metabolism (e.g. ecosystem production and respiration)) affecting air-sea CO2 flux at the lake Komuke, Japan. We statistically analyzed the observed data using the structured equation modeling (SEM). Specifically, we implemented the path analysis to examine the direct and indirect effects of the environmental factors on the air-sea CO2 flux. Our results showed that autotrophic sites at central lake can be sinks for atmospheric CO2. The key factors directly affecting the air-sea CO2 flux were indicated to be wind speed and salinity; in turn, the community metabolism were indicated to be an indirect but significant factor.
