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Lakes and other inland waters contribute significantly to regional and global carbon budgets. Emissions from lakes are often computed as the product of a gas transfer coefficient, k ₆₀₀ , and the difference in concentration across the diffusive boundary layer at the air–water interface. Eddy covariance (EC) techniques are increasingly being used in lacustrine gas flux studies and tend to report higher values for derived k ₆₀₀ than other approaches. Using results from an EC study of a small, boreal lake, we modelled k ₆₀₀ using a boundary-layer approach that included wind shear and cooling. During stratification, fluxes estimated by EC occasionally were higher than those obtained by our models. The high fluxes co-occurred with winds strong enough to induce deflections of the thermocline. We attribute the higher measured fluxes to upwelling-induced spatial variability in surface concentrations of CO₂ within the …