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Title: Rising plant-mediated methane emissions from arctic wetlands

Journal Article · · Global Change Biology
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13469· OSTI ID:1357118
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences; Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Science Division
  2. Univ. of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences; Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK (United States). Inst. of Arctic Biology
  3. Univ. of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States). Dept. of Biological Sciences
+ Show Author Affiliations

Plant-mediated CH4 flux is an important pathway for land–atmosphere CH4 emissions, but the magnitude, timing, and environmental controls, spanning scales of space and time, remain poorly understood in arctic tundra wetlands, particularly under the long-term effects of climate change. CH4 fluxes were measured in situ during peak growing season for the dominant aquatic emergent plants in the Alaskan arctic coastal plain, Carex aquatilis and Arctophila fulva, to assess the magnitude and species-specific controls on CH4 flux. Plant biomass was a strong predictor of A. fulva CH4 flux while water depth and thaw depth were copredictors for C. aquatilis CH4 flux. Here, we used plant and environmental data from 1971 to 1972 from the historic International Biological Program (IBP) research site near Barrow, Alaska, which we resampled in 2010–2013, to quantify changes in plant biomass and thaw depth, and used these to estimate species-specific decadal-scale changes in CH4 fluxes. A ~60% increase in CH4 flux was estimated from the observed plant biomass and thaw depth increases in tundra ponds over the past 40 years. In spite of our covering only ~5% of the landscape, we estimate that aquatic C. aquatilis and A. fulva account for two-thirds of the total regional CH4 flux of the Barrow Peninsula. The regionally observed increases in plant biomass and active layer thickening over the past 40 years not only have major implications for energy and water balance, but also have significantly altered land–atmosphere CH4 emissions for this region, potentially acting as a positive feedback to climate warming.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC). Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1357118
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-16-26106
Journal Information:
Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 3; ISSN 1354-1013
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 49 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Estimating methane emissions using vegetation mapping in the taiga–tundra boundary of a north-eastern Siberian lowland journal January 2019
Methane emissions from tree stems: a new frontier in the global carbon cycle journal December 2018
Plant biomass and soil organic carbon are main factors influencing dry-season ecosystem carbon rates in the coastal zone of the Yellow River Delta journal January 2019
Drainage enhances modern soil carbon contribution but reduces old soil carbon contribution to ecosystem respiration in tundra ecosystems journal February 2019
Urban Geocryology: Mapping Urban–Rural Contrasts in Active-Layer Thickness, Barrow Peninsula, Northern Alaska journal March 2019
Understanding spatial variability of methane fluxes in Arctic wetlands through footprint modelling journal December 2019
Plants, microorganisms, and soil temperatures contribute to a decrease in methane fluxes on a drained Arctic floodplain journal November 2016
Climate-driven shifts in sediment chemistry enhance methane production in northern lakes journal May 2018
Nutrient Release From Permafrost Thaw Enhances CH 4 Emissions From Arctic Tundra Wetlands journal June 2019
Soil moisture and hydrology projections of the permafrost region – a model intercomparison journal January 2020

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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Earth Sciences
Methane
Arctic
Wetlands
Macrophytes