Atmospheric methane sources - Alaskan tundra bogs, an alpine fen, and a subarctic boreal marsh

• Main Authors: Sebacher, D. I., Harriss, R. C., Grice, S. S., Bartlett, K. B., Sebacher, S. M.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1986
• Subjects: 45; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Fairbanks; Brooks Range; permafrost; Prudhoe Bay; Subarctic; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19860064803

Methane (CH4) flux measurements from Alaska tundra bogs, an alpine fen, and a subarctic boreal marsh were obtained at field sites ranging from Prudhoe Bay on the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Alaskan Range south of Fairbanks during August 1984. In the tundra, average CH4 emission rates varied from 4.9 mg CH4 per sq m per day (moist tundra) to 119 mg CH4 per sq m per day (waterlogged tundra). Fluxes averaged 40 mg CH4 per sq m per day from wet tussock meadows in the Brooks Range and 289 mg Ch4 per sq m per day from an alpine fen in the Alaskan Range. The boreal marsh had an average CH4 emission rate of 106 mg CH4 per sq m per day. Significant emissions were detected in tundra areas where peat temperatures were as low as 4 C, and permafrost was only 25 cm below the ground surface. Emission rates from the 17 sites sampled were found to be logarithmically related to water levels at the sites. Extrapolation of the data to an estimate of the total annual CH4 emission from all arctic and boreal wetlands suggests that these ecosystems are a major source of atmospheric CH4 and could account for up to 23 percent of global CH4 emissions from wetlands.