The air–water exchange of C15–C31 n-alkanes in a precipitation-dominated seepage lake

The air–water exchange of semivolatile n-alkanes in Crystal Lake, a small precipitation-dominated seepage lake in northern Wisconsin, was investigated with modeling and mass balance approaches. The results suggest that atmospheric deposition contributes approximately 80% of the allochthonous input of n-alkanes to Crystal Lake. Atmospheric deposition accounts for about 50% of the total annual input of n-alkanes to Crystal Lake, and an additional 30% is contributed by in situ production of planktonic n-alkanes (ΣC15, C17, C19). Contributions to the particle dry flux of terrestrial n-alkanes (ΣC25, C27, C29, C31) by pine pollen dispersal and by dry deposition of particles containing leaf waxes are similar in magnitude and constitute about 60% of the atmospheric input, with particle wet deposition being responsible for the remainder. Approximately 30% of the atmospheric input of the n-alkanes occurs during a two-week episode of pine pollen dispersal in spring. Concentration gradients between gaseous n-alkanes in the atmosphere and dissolved n-alkanes in the water column of Crystal Lake favor volatilization of n-alkanes from the lake surface; however, distributions of dissolved n-alkanes are characteristic of bacteria, and therefore are contained in organic matter and not available for air–water exchange. The estimated net atmospheric input of terrestrial n-alkanes is about 20% less than the settling sediment flux. Additional allochthonous sources of the terrestrial n-alkanes might include diffuse surface runoff or episodes of coarse-particle deposition. The discrepancies in the results from the modeling and mass balance approaches indicate that direct measurements of air–water exchange rates and measurements of the seasonal variations of particle size distributions in air and rain would greatly improve our ability to quantify air–water exchange rates of n-alkanes.