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Methane (CH4) emissions from the boreal and arctic region are globally significant and highly sensitive to climate change. There is currently a wide range in estimates of high-latitude annual CH4 fluxes, where estimates based on land cover inventories and empirical CH4 flux data or process models (bottom-up approaches) generally are greater than atmospheric inversions (top-down approaches). A limitation of bottom-up approaches has been the lack of harmonization between inventories of site-level CH4 flux data and the land cover classes present in high-latitude spatial datasets. Here we present a comprehensive dataset of small-scale, surface CH4 flux data from 540 terrestrial sites (wetland and non-wetland) and 1247 aquatic sites (lakes and ponds), compiled from 189 studies. The Boreal–Arctic Wetland and Lake Methane Dataset (BAWLD-CH4) was constructed in parallel with a compatible land cover dataset, sharing the same land cover classes to enable refined bottom-up assessments. BAWLD-CH4 includes information on site-level CH4 fluxes but also on study design (measurement method, timing, and frequency) and site characteristics (vegetation, climate, hydrology, soil, and sediment types, permafrost conditions, lake size and depth, and our determination of land cover class). The different land cover classes had distinct CH4 fluxes, resulting from definitions that were either based on or co-varied with key environmental controls. Fluxes of CH4 from terrestrial ecosystems were primarily influenced by water table position, soil temperature, and vegetation composition, while CH4 fluxes from aquatic ecosystems were primarily influenced by water temperature, lake size, and lake genesis. Models could explain more of the between-site variability in CH4 fluxes for terrestrial than aquatic ecosystems, likely due to both less precise assessments of lake CH4 fluxes and fewer consistently reported lake site characteristics. Analysis of BAWLD-CH4 identified both land cover classes and regions within the boreal and arctic domain, where future studies should be focused, alongside methodological approaches. Overall, BAWLD-CH4 provides a comprehensive dataset of CH4 emissions from high-latitude ecosystems that are useful for identifying research opportunities, for comparison against new field data, and model parameterization or validation. BAWLD-CH4 can be downloaded from https://doi.org/10.18739/A2DN3ZX1R (Kuhn et al., 2021).

Lakes and reservoirs contribute to regional carbon budgets via significant emissions of climate forcing trace gases. Here, for improved modelling, we use 8 years of floating chamber measurements from three small, shallow subarctic lakes (2010–2017, n=1306 ) to separate the contribution of physical and biogeochemical processes to the turbulence-driven, diffusion-limited flux of methane ( CH4 ) on daily to multi-year timescales. Correlative data include surface water concentration measurements (2009–2017, n=606 ), total water column storage (2010–2017, n=237 ), and in situ meteorological observations. We used the last to compute near-surface turbulence based on similarity scaling and then applied the surface renewal model to compute gas transfer velocities. Chamber fluxes averaged 6.9±0.3 mg CH4 m −2 d −1 and gas transfer velocities ( k600 ) averaged 4.0±0.1 cm h −1 . Chamber-derived gas transfer velocities tracked the power-law wind speed relation of the model. Coefficients for the model and dissipation rates depended on shear production of turbulence, atmospheric stability, and exposure to wind. Fluxes increased with wind speed until daily average values exceeded 6.5 m s −1 , at which point emissions were suppressed due to rapid water column degassing reducing the water–air concentration gradient. Arrhenius-type temperature functions of the CH4 flux ( E a ′ = 0.90 ± 0.14 eV) were robust ( R2≥0.93 , p ) and also applied to the surface CH4 concentration ( E a ′ = 0.88 ± 0.09 eV). These results imply that emissions were strongly coupled to production and supply to the water column. Spectral analysis indicated that on timescales shorter than a month, emissions were driven by wind shear whereas on longer timescales variations in water temperature governed the flux. Long-term monitoring efforts are essential to identify distinct functional relations that govern flux variability on timescales of weather and climate change.

Characterizing methane sources in the Arctic remains challenging due to the remoteness, heterogeneity and variety of such emissions. In situ campaigns provide valuable datasets to reduce these uncertainties. Here we analyse data from the summer 2014 SWERUS-C3 campaign in the eastern Arctic Ocean, off the shore of Siberia and Alaska. Total concentrations of methane, as well as relative concentrations of 12CH4 and 13CH4, were measured continuously during this campaign for 35 d in July and August. Using a chemistry-transport model, we link observed concentrations and isotopic ratios to regional emissions and hemispheric transport structures. A simple inversion system helped constrain source signatures from wetlands in Siberia and Alaska, and oceanic sources, as well as the isotopic composition of lower-stratosphere air masses. The variation in the signature of lower-stratosphere air masses, due to strongly fractionating chemical reactions in the stratosphere, was suggested to explain a large share of the observed variability in isotopic ratios. These results point towards necessary efforts to better simulate large-scale transport and chemistry patterns to make relevant use of isotopic data in remote areas. It is also found that constant and homogeneous source signatures for each type of emission in a given region (mostly wetlands and oil and gas industry in our case at high latitudes) are not compatible with the strong synoptic isotopic signal observed in the Arctic. A regional gradient in source signatures is highlighted between Siberian and Alaskan wetlands, the latter having lighter signatures (more depleted in 13C). Finally, our results suggest that marine emissions of methane from Arctic continental-shelf sources are dominated by thermogenic-origin methane, with a secondary biogenic source as well.

Recent efforts have brought together bottom-up quantification approaches (inventories and process-based models) and top-down approaches using regional observations of methane atmospheric concentrations through inverse modelling to better estimate the northern high-latitude methane sources. Nevertheless, for both approaches, the relatively small number of available observations in northern high-latitude regions leaves gaps in our understanding of the drivers and distributions of the different types of regional methane sources. Observations of methane isotope ratios, performed with instruments that are becoming increasingly affordable and accurate, could bring new insights on the contributions of methane sources and sinks. Here, we present the source signal that could be observed from methane isotopic 13CH4 measurements if high-resolution observations were available and thus what requirements should be fulfilled in future instrument deployments in terms of accuracy in order to constrain different emission categories. This theoretical study uses the regional chemistry-transport model CHIMERE driven by different scenarios of isotopic signatures for each regional methane source mix. It is found that if the current network of methane monitoring sites were equipped with instruments measuring the isotopic signal continuously, only sites that are significantly influenced by emission sources could differentiate regional emissions with a reasonable level of confidence. For example, wetland emissions require daily accuracies lower than 0.2 ‰ for most of the sites. Detecting East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS) emissions requires accuracies lower than 0.05 ‰ at coastal Russian sites (even lower for other sites). Freshwater emissions would be detectable with an uncertainty lower than 0.1 ‰ for most continental sites. Except Yakutsk, Siberian sites require stringent uncertainty (lower than 0.05 ‰) to detect anthropogenic emissions from oil and gas or coal production. Remote sites such as Zeppelin, Summit, or Alert require a daily uncertainty below 0.05 ‰ to detect any regional sources. These limits vary with the hypothesis on isotopic signatures assigned to the different sources.

Methane (CH4) emissions from wetlands are likely increasing and important in global climate change assessments. However, contemporary terrestrial biogeochemical model predictions of CH4 emissions are very uncertain, at least in part due to prescribed temperature sensitivity of CH4 production and emission. While statistically consistent apparent CH4 emission temperature dependencies have been inferred from meta-analyses across microbial to ecosystem scales, year-round ecosystem-scale observations have contradicted that finding. Using flux observations and mechanistic modeling in two heavily studied high-latitude research sites (Stordalen, Sweden, and Utqiaġvik, Alaska, USA), we show here that substrate-mediated hysteretic microbial and abiotic interactions lead to intra-seasonally varying temperature sensitivity of CH4 production and emission. We find that seasonally varying substrate availability drives lower and higher modeled methanogen biomass and activity, and thereby CH4 production, during the earlier and later periods of the thawed season, respectively. Our findings demonstrate the uncertainty of inferring CH4 emission or production from temperature alone, and highlight the need to represent microbial and abiotic interactions in wetland biogeochemical models.

We present the Net Ecosystem Carbon Balance (NECB) of a Northern mire ecosystem for the period 2016-2019. The Mycklemossen peatland is located in the hemi-boreal region in the Southwestern part of Sweden and is classified as a fen with bog-like vegetation. The NECB was determined from eddy covariance (EC) measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) and continuous water discharge measurements with biweekly measurements of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and dissolved CH4. We focus on the carbon dynamics of the Mycklemossen ecosystem during summer droughts and on its recovery during normal years. During 2016-2018, the annual precipitation was lower than the 30-year average while 2019 was a normal year in terms of weather conditions. 2018 sticks out as an extreme year with a severe drought and unusually high air temperature at Mycklemossen, as was the case in much of Northern and Central Europe.The EC results indicate that Mycklemossen lost carbon during 2016-2018. While CH4 emissions decreased, the mire became a strong source of CO2 these years, especially 2018. There were also large losses of DOC during this period, which were further enhanced during 2019.

Lakes and wetlands, common ecosystems of the high northern latitudes, exchange large amounts of the climate-forcing gases methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) with the atmosphere. The magnitude of these fluxes and the processes driving them are still uncertain, particularly for subarctic and Arctic lakes where direct measurements of CH4 and CO2 emissions are often of low temporal resolution and are rarely sustained throughout the entire year. Using the eddy covariance method, we measured surface-atmosphere exchange of CH4 and CO2 during 2.5 years in a thawed fen and a shallow lake of a subarctic peatland complex. Gas exchange at the fen exhibited the expected seasonality of a subarctic wetland with maximum CH4 emissions and CO2 uptake in summer, as well as low but continuous emissions of CH4 and CO2 throughout the snow-covered winter. The seasonality of lake fluxes differed, with maximum CO2 and CH4 flux rates recorded at spring thaw. During the ice-free seasons, we could identify surface CH4 emissions as mostly ebullition events with a seasonal trend in the magnitude of the release, while a net CO2 flux indicated photosynthetic activity. We found correlations between surface CH4 emissions and surface sediment temperature, as well as between diel CO2 uptake and diel solar input. At ice-out, the breakdown of thermal stratification following ice thaw triggered the degassing of both CH4 and CO2. This spring burst was observed in two consecutive years for both gases, with a large inter-annual variability in the magnitude of the CH4 degassing. On the annual scale, spring emissions converted the lake from a small CO2 sink to a CO2 source. 80 % of total annual carbon emissions from the lake were emitted as CO2. The annual total carbon exchange per unit area was highest at the fen, which was an annual sink of carbon with respect to the atmosphere. Continuous respiration during the winter partly counteracted the fen summer sink by accounting for, as both CH4 and CO2, 33 % of annual carbon exchange. Our study underlines (1) the importance of overturn periods (spring or fall) for the annual CH4 and CO2 emissions of northern lakes, (2) the significance of lakes as atmospheric carbon sources in subarctic landscapes while fens can be strong carbon sink and (3) the potential for ecosystem-scale eddy covariance measurements to improve the understanding of short-term processes driving lake-atmosphere exchange of CH4 and CO2.

Lakes and reservoirs are important emitters of climate forcing trace gases. Various environmental drivers of the flux, such as temperature and wind speed, have been identified, but their relative importance remains poorly understood. Here we use an extensive field dataset to disentangle physical and biogeochemical controls on the turbulence-driven diffusive flux of methane (CH4) on daily to multi-year timescales. We compare 8 years of floating chamber fluxes from three small, shallow subarctic lakes (2010–2017, n = 1306) with fluxes computed using 9 years of surface water concentration measurements (2009–2017, n = 606) and a small-eddy surface renewal model informed by in situ meteorological observations. Chamber fluxes averaged 6.9 ± 0.3 mg m−2 d−1 and gas transfer velocities (k600) from the chamber-calibrated surface renewal model averaged 4.0 ± 0.1 cm h−1. We find robust (R2 ≥ 0.93, p

Aquatic ecosystems are major sources of greenhouse gases (GHG). Robust measurements of natural GHG emissions are vital for evaluating regional to global carbon budgets and for assessing climate feedbacks on natural emissions to improve climate models. Diffusive and ebullitive (bubble) transport are two major pathways of gas release from surface waters. To capture the high temporal variability of these fluxes in a well-defined footprint, we designed and built an inexpensive device that includes an easily mobile diffusive flux chamber and a bubble counter, all in one. In addition to automatically collecting gas samples for subsequent various analyses in the laboratory, this device also utilizes a low cost carbon dioxide (CO2) sensor (SenseAir, Sweden) and methane (CH4) sensor (Figaro, Japan) to measure GHG fluxes. Each of the devices were equipped with an XBee module to enable a local radio communication (DigiMesh network) for time synchronization, and data readout at a server-controller station on the lakeshore. Software of this server-controller is operated on a low-cost computer (Raspberry Pi) which has a 3G connection for remote control and monitor functions from anywhere in the world. This study shows the potential of a low cost automatic sensor network system to study GHG fluxes on lakes in remote locations.

Despite their modest 4 % magnitude compared to global emissions, Arctic methane sources are key elements in closing the global atmospheric methane budget, due to high uncertainties in their quantification and to their strong climate sensitivity. Recent efforts brought together bottom-up quantification approaches (inventories, process-based models) and regional observations of methane concentrations through inverse modelling to better estimate the Arctic methane sources, but the relatively small number of available observations in Arctic regions leaves gaps in fully understanding the drivers and distributions of the different types of methane sources present in the Arctic. Observations of methane isotope ratios could bring new insights on methane processes with increasingly affordable and accurate instruments. Here, we present the source signal that could be observed from methane isotopic measurements if high-resolution observations were available, and thus what requirements should be fulfilled in future instrument deployments in terms of accuracy in order to constrain different emission categories. This theoretical study uses the regional chemistry-transport model CHIMERE driven by different scenarios of isotopic signatures for each regional methane source mix. It is found that if the current network of methane monitoring sites is equipped with instruments measuring the isotopic signal continuously, only sites that are significantly influenced by emission sources could differentiate regional emissions from the background with a reasonable level of confidence. Nevertheless, we show that the detection of individual Arctic sources requires daily accuracies of

Northern peatlands in permafrost regions contain a large amount of organic carbon (C) in the soil. Climate warming and associated permafrost degradation are expected to have significant impacts on the C balance of these ecosystems, but the magnitude is uncertain. We incorporated a permafrost model, Northern Ecosystem Soil Temperature (NEST), into a biogeochemical model, DeNitrification-DeComposition (DNDC), to model C dynamics in high-latitude peatland ecosystems. The enhanced model was applied to assess effects of permafrost thaw on C fluxes of a subarctic peatland at Stordalen, Sweden. DNDC simulated soil freeze–thaw dynamics, net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE), and CH4 fluxes across three typical land cover types, which represent a gradient in the process of ongoing permafrost thaw at Stordalen. Model results were compared with multiyear field measurements, and the validation indicates that DNDC was able to simulate observed differences in seasonal soil thaw, NEE, and CH4 fluxes across the three land cover types. Consistent with the results from field studies, the modeled C fluxes across the permafrost thaw gradient demonstrate that permafrost thaw and the associated changes in soil hydrology and vegetation not only increase net uptake of C from the atmosphere but also increase the annual to decadal radiative forcing impacts on climate due to increased CH4 emissions. This study indicates the potential of utilizing biogeochemical models, such as DNDC, to predict the soil thermal regime in permafrost areas and to investigate impacts of permafrost thaw on ecosystem C fluxes after incorporating a permafrost component into the model framework.

International audience; We studied nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes and soil nitrogen (N) cycling following forest conversion to pasture in the central Amazon near Santarém, Pará, Brazil. Two undisturbed forest sites and 27 pasture sites of 0.5 to 60 years were sampled once each during wet and dry seasons. In addition to soil-atmosphere fluxes of N2O we measured 27 soil chemical, soil microbiological and soil physical variables. Soil N2O fluxes were higher in the wet season than in the dry season. Fluxes of N2O from forest soils always exceeded fluxes from pasture soils and showed no consistent trend with pasture age. At our forest sites, nitrate was the dominant form of inorganic N both during wet and dry season. At our pasture sites nitrate generally dominated the inorganic N pools during the wet season and ammonium dominated during the dry season. Net mineralization and nitrification rates displayed large variations. During the dry season net immobilization of N was observed in some pastures. Compared to forest sites, young pasture sites (?2 years) had low microbial biomass N and protease activities. Protease activity and microbial biomass N peaked in pastures of intermediate age (4 to 8 years) followed by consistently lower values in older pasture (10 to 60 years). The C/N ratio of litter was low at the forest sites (~25) and rapidly increased with pasture age reaching values of 60?70 at pastures of 15 years and older. Nitrous oxide emissions at our sites were controlled by C and N availability and soil aeration. Fluxes of N2O were negatively correlated to leaf litter C/N ratio, NH4+-N and the ratio of NO3--N to the sum of NO3--N + NH4+-N (indicators of N availability), and methane fluxes and bulk density (indicators of soil aeration status) during the wet season. During the dry season fluxes of N2O were positively correlated to microbial biomass N, ?-glucosidase activity, total inorganic N stocks and NH4+-N. In our study region, pastures of all age emitted less N2O than old-growth forests, because of a progressive decline in N availability with pasture age combined with strongly anaerobic conditions in some pastures during the wet season.