Field investigations were performed to examine environmental factors (wind speed, water temperature, salinity, total alkalinity (TA), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), and the metabolism associated with DIC) affecting air-sea CO
2 flux at the lake Furen, Japan. We analyzed the time-series variations of the observed data and their correlationships. In addition, we implemented a multivariate analysis (the path analysis) to examine the direct and indirect effects of the environmental factors on the air-sea CO
2 flux. The environmental factors that directly affect the air-sea CO
2 flux were indicated to be DIC, TA, and wind speed. In turn, the metabolism appears to indirectly affect the air-sea CO
2 flux through DIC, i.e., biological processes, including respiration, mineralization, and photosynthesis.
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