Growing season methane emissions from a permafrost peatland of northeast China: Observations using open-path eddy covariance method

The mid-high latitude permafrost peatlands in the Northern Hemisphere is a major natural source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. Ecosystem scale CH4 emissions from a typical permafrost peatland in the Great Hing'an Mountains were observed during the growing season of 2014 and 2015 using the open-path eddy covariance method. Relevant environmental factors such as temperature and precipitation were also collected. There was a clear diurnal variation in methane emissions in the second half of each growing season, with significantly higher emission rates in the wet sector of study area. The daily CH4 exchange ranged from 1.8 mg CH4 m−2 d−1 to 40.2 mg CH4 m−2 d−1 in 2014 and ranged from −3.9 to 15.0 mg CH4 m−2 d−1 in 2015. There were no peaks of CH4 fluxes during the spring thawing period. However, large peaks of CH4 emission were found in the second half of both growing seasons. The CH4 emission after Jul 25th accounted for 77.9% of total growing season emission in 2014 and 85.9% in 2015. The total CH4 emission during the growing season of 2014 and 2015 was approximately 1.52 g CH4 m−2 and 0.71 g CH4 m−2, respectively. CH4 fluxes during the growing seasons were significantly correlated with thawing depth (R2 = 0.71, P < 0.01) and soil temperatures (R2 = 0.75, P < 0.01) at 40 cm depth. An empirical equation using these two major variables was modified to estimate growing season CH4 emissions in permafrost peatlands. Our multiyear observations indicate that the time-lagged volume of precipitation during the growing season is a key factor in interpreting locally inter-annual variations in CH4 emissions. Our results suggested that the low temperature in the deep soil layers effectively restricts methane production and emission rates; these conditions may create significant positive feedback under global climate change.