Publikationsdatum:
2014-01-28
Beschreibung:
High Arctic landscapes are essentially vast cold deserts interspersed with streams, ponds and wetlands. These landscapes may be important consumers and sources of the greenhouse gas methane (CH4), though few measurements exist from this region. To quantify the flux of CH4 (FCH4) between the atmosphere and desert and wetland landscapes on northern Ellesmere Island, Canada, we made static chamber measurements at both locations over five growing seasons and eddy covariance (EC) measurements at the wetland in 2012. Chamber measurements revealed that desert soils consumed CH4 (−1.37 ± 0.10 mg-CH4 m−2 d−1) whereas the wetland emitted CH4 (+0.22 ± 0.19 mg-CH4 m−2 d−1). Desert CH4 consumption rates were positively correlated with soil temperature among years, and were similar to temperate locations, likely because of suitable landscape conditions for soil gas diffusion. Wetland FCH4 varied closely with stream discharge entering the wetland and hence extent of soil saturation. Landscape-scale FCH4 measured by EC was +1.27± 0.18 mg-CH4 m−2 d−1 and varied with soil temperature and carbon dioxide flux. FCH4 measured using EC was higher than using chambers because EC incorporated a arger, more saturated footprint of the wetland. Using EC FCH4 and quantifying the mass of CH4 entering and exiting the wetland in stream water, we determined that methanogenisis within wetland soils was the dominant source of FCH4. Low FCH4 at the wetland was likely due to a shallow organic soil layer, and thus limited carbon resources for methanogens. Considering the prevalence of dry soils in the high Arctic, our results suggest that these landscapes cannot be overlooked as important consumers of atmospheric CH4.
Print ISSN:
1810-6277
Digitale ISSN:
1810-6285
Thema:
Biologie
,
Geologie und Paläontologie
