Toward a statistical description of methane emissions from arctic wetlands

• Published in: Ambio
• Main Authors: Pirk, Norbert, Mastepanov, Mikhail, López-Blanco, Efrén, Christensen, Louise H., Christiansen, Hanne H., Hansen, Birger Ulf, Lund, Magnus, Parmentier, Frans-Jan W., Skov, Kirstine, Christensen, Torben R.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Netherlands 2017
• Subjects: Article; Arctic; Greenland; Svalbard; Tundra
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5258667/; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28116692; https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0893-3

Methane (CH4) emissions from arctic tundra typically follow relations with soil temperature and water table depth, but these process-based descriptions can be difficult to apply to areas where no measurements exist. We formulated a description of the broader temporal flux pattern in the growing season based on two distinct CH4 source components from slow and fast-turnover carbon. We used automatic closed chamber flux measurements from NE Greenland (74°N), W Greenland (64°N), and Svalbard (78°N) to identify and discuss these components. The temporal separation was well-suited in NE Greenland, where the hypothesized slow-turnover carbon peaked at a time significantly related to the timing of snowmelt. The temporally wider component from fast-turnover carbon dominated the emissions in W Greenland and Svalbard. Altogether, we found no dependence of the total seasonal CH4 budget to the timing of snowmelt, and warmer sites and years tended to yield higher CH4 emissions.