The methane flux along topographical gradients on a glacier foreland in the High Arctic, Ny-Alesund, Svalbard

• Main Authors: Minaco Adachi, Toshiyuki Ohtsuka, Takayuki Nakatsubo, Hiroshi Koizumi
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Global Resources, National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences 2006
• Subjects: carbon cycle; High Arctic; methane (CH4) flux; soil factors; vegetation type; Arctic; Svalbard; arctic methane; glacier; Polar bioscience; Tundra
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=6266; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00006266/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=6266&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

In order to examine the relationship between the methane (CH_4) flux and soil factors and vegetation in High Arctic tundra, we investigated the CH_4 flux along topographical gradients on a glacier foreland in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard (79°N, 12°E). The CH4 flux rates varied widely among sites even within the same vegetation type, ranging from positive (emission) to negative (absorption) values. High CH_4 emission rates were detected on ridges and in sites with a low soil water content, but there was no significant relationship between CH_4 flux rates and soil factors including soil moisture, pH, soil carbon and nitrogen content. Mean values of CH_4 emission and CH_4 absorption were 0.30±0.33 mg m^(-2) h^(-1) (n=12) and 0.11±0.06 mg m^(-2) h^(-1) (n=11), respectively. These findings suggest that the study area is a small source of CH_4 with a mean flux of 0.11 mg CH_4 m^(-2) h^(-1) (0.083 mg C m^(-2) h^(-1)). It was concluded that carbon flux derived from CH_4 accounts for an extremely small proportion of the total carbon flux from soil in this area.