• Advances in environmental research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.123-133
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• 2020

A time series dataset was conducted to ascertain the effect of water table on the variability in and emission of CH₄ and CO₂ concentrations at a closed landfill site. An in-situ data of methane/carbon dioxide concentrations and environmental parameters were collected by means of an in-borehole gas monitor, the Gasclam (Ion Science, UK). Linear regression analysis was used to determine the strength of the correlation between ground-gas concentration and water table. The result shows CH₄ and CO₂ concentrations to be variable with strong negative correlations of approximately 0.5 each with water table over the entire monitoring period. The R² was slightly improved by considering their concentration over single periods of increasing and decreasing water table, single periods of increasing water table, and single periods of decreasing water table; their correlations increased significantly at 95% confidence level. The result revealed that fluctuations in groundwater level is the key driving force on the emission of and variability in groundgas concentration and neither barometric pressure nor temperature. This finding further validates the earlier finding that atmospheric pressure - the acclaimed major control on the variability/migration of CH₄ and CO₂ concentrations on contaminated sites, is not always so.