Measurements of eddy correlation oxygen fluxes in shallow freshwaters: Towards routine applications and analysis

Benthic fluxes of dissolved oxygen are measured in a shallow reservoir using the eddy correlation technique. Flux variations depict the diurnal production‐consumption cycle, with daytime oxygen release following the solar radiation trend. The average nighttime uptake of −40 ± 11 mmol m −2 d −1 is in excellent agreement with the rate of −35 ± 3 mmol m −2 d −1 derived from sediment oxygen microprofiles. Separating large‐scale advective and turbulent fluctuations is a crucial and uncertain component of the flux computation and the largest source of error. To compensate for the 2.25 s oxygen sensor response time, the oxygen flux calculations are corrected by only ∼5% using a first‐order spectral enhancement. This work demonstrates that only a slightly faster oxygen sensor would be needed to resolve the entire flux spectrum. The 18 hours of data are the first measurements obtained in a freshwater reservoir that capture the diurnal oxygen production‐consumption cycle.