Factors controlling large scale variations in methane emissions from wetlands

Abstract

Global wetlands are, at estimate ranging 115–237 Tg CH 4 /yr, the largest single atmospheric source of the greenhouse gas methane (CH 4 ). We present a dataset on CH 4 flux rates totaling 12 measurement years at sites from Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and Siberia. We find that temperature and microbial substrate availability (expressed as the organic acid concentration in peat water) combined explain almost 100% of the variations in mean annual CH 4 emissions. The temperature sensitivity of the CH 4 emissions shown suggests a feedback mechanism on climate change that could validate incorporation in further developments of global circulation models.