Understanding the dynamics of pCO2 and pCH4 is important for evaluating carbon emissions from the aquatic environment. While temporal dynamics of pCO2 and pCH4 have been extensively studied, there is a noticeable gap in the literature concerning their spatial characteristics. In this study, we used boat-mounted sensors to directly measure pCO2 and pCH4 with high spatial resolution across seasons in Xuanwu Lake (XWL), an urban lake in Nanjing, China. Additionally, water chemistries were measured at selected sites for correlation analysis. Sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the effects of measurement location and density on carbon flux estimates.
Results show that continuous on-board measurements innovatively captured the spatial distribution of pCO2 and pCH4. Both gases varied significantly across seasons, exhibiting pronounced spatial heterogeneity. Peak emissions occurred in summer, with the lowest CO2 in spring and CH4 in fall. Both pCO2 and pCH4 increased from the lake center to the shoreline, with the largest fluctuations near the shore. In total, XWL acted as a net source of CO2 and CH4, with mean diffusive fluxes of 11.4 ± 10.1 and 3.0 ± 0.3 mmol∙m−2∙d−1, respectively. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis showed that lake-wide flux calculations depend on measurement locations and sample size. pCO2 exhibited greater heterogeneity than pCH4, necessitating different sampling thresholds. The optimal threshold for capturing lake-wide CO2 flux was 18–30 samples per km2, while this density was sufficient for CH4 flux estimates. Our study highlights that both CO2 and CH4 exhibit significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity, necessitating high-resolution sampling for accurate flux assessments. The sampling strategy presented could guide future studies, as sampling in the intermediate zone effectively reduces the number of samples needed while maintaining accuracy.