Nitrous oxide emission from boreal peatland in the continuous permafrost zone, Northeast China

In the present study, we measured ecosystem N 2 O fluxes weekly using manual chambers from June to September 2010 in a permafrost peatland in Northeast China. The fluxes were generally low, ranging from −21.9 to 25.6 µg m−2 h−1 (negative flux indicating uptake of N 2 O from the atmosphere into the soil) and showed large temporal variation with no clear pattern. The mean N 2 O flux during the observation period was −3.9 µg m−2 h−1. In addition, N 2 O fluxes negatively correlated with the thawing depth, and had no correlation with soil temperature, moisture and water table. Our result indicates that, in Northeast China, boreal peatlands act as a N 2 O sink in the snow-free season. This would provide a negative feedback to climate warming in the boreal regions in the future. Due to short observation of N 2 O flux, more studies should be conducted to investigate annual fluxes and the factors which controlled the N 2 O fluxes.