Methane gas flux measurements in the northern Alaskan coastal tundra
Abstract
Wetlands are the largest source of CH4 globally. Ongoing climate changes will subject to change CH4 emission through hydrological and climatological processes. The changes are particularly prominent in the Arctic ecosystem which is responsible for more than 10 % of the global CH4 emission from wetlands. However, whether CH4 emission in response to predicted environments will increase or decrease is not well-known. Uncertainty in understanding CH4 emission is also attributed to the fact that majority of CH4 flux measurements were conducted with chamber methods that potentially overestimate CH4 flux due to the artificial disturbance. Therefore, it is important to examine how CH4 flux responds to environmental processes with the least disturbance. In this study, CH4 flux from the wet coastal tundra in Alaska was measured with the eddy covariance technique using the open path gas analyzer (LI-7700, Li-Cor) that has recently become available commercially. The study site was located at the long-term CO2 flux monitoring site (CMDL) in Barrow Alaska, and the methane sensor was installed in June, 2012. Preliminary results show that a large efflux of CH4 of 165 mgCH4m-2day-1 on average within several days from June 30 to July 9, while CO2 flux was nearly balanced. The magnitude of the efflux is about few orders higher than CH4 flux observed in the vicinity of the measurement sites [Rhew et al., 2007; Zona et al., 2009; Sturtevant et al., 2011]. The development of the data collection for a longer term as well as further correlation analysis with environmental data has been undergoing. Acknowledgement: We acknowledge CARVE, DOE and UMIAQ for supporting our research.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.B51B0550I
- Keywords:
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- 0400 BIOGEOSCIENCES