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Biotic controls on CO2 and CH4 exchange in wetlands – a closed environment study

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Abstract

Wetlands are significant sources of the important greenhouse gas CH4. Here we explore the use of an experimental system developed for the determination of continuous fluxes of CO2 and CH4 in closed ecosystem monoliths including the capture of 14CO2 and 14CH4 following pulse labelling with 14CO2. We show that, in the ecosystem studied, ebullition (bubble emission) may account for 18 to 50% of the total CH4 emission, representing fluxes that have been difficult to estimate accurately in the past. Furthermore, using plant removal and 14C labelling techniques, we use the system to detail the direct influence of vascular plants on CH4 emission. This influence is observed to be dependent on the amount of vascular plants present. The results that may be produced using the presented experimental set-up have implications for an improved understanding of wetland ecosystem/atmosphere interactions, including possible feedback effects on climate change. In recent years much attention has been devoted to ascertaining and subsequently using the relationship between net ecosystem productivity and CH4 emission as a basis for extrapolation of fluxes across large areas. The experimental system presented may be used to study the complex relationship between vascular plants and CH4 emission and here we show examples of how this may vary considerably in nature between and even within ecosystems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Climate Impacts Group, Department of Ecology (now: Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Analysis), Lund University, Lund, S-223 62, Sweden

    Torben R. Christensen, Nicolai Panikov, Mihail Mastepanov, Anna Joabsson, Angela Stewart, Martin Sommerkorn & Sebastian Reynaud

  2. Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Microbiology, Moscow, 117811, Russia

    Nicolai Panikov & Mihail Mastepanov

  3. Dept. of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Stevens Institute of Technology, United States

    Nicolai Panikov

  4. Department of Water and Environmental Studies, Linköping University, Linköping, S-581 83, Sweden

    Mats Öquist & Bo Svensson

Authors
  1. Torben R. Christensen
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  2. Nicolai Panikov
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  4. Anna Joabsson
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  5. Angela Stewart
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  8. Sebastian Reynaud
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  9. Bo Svensson
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Christensen, T.R., Panikov, N., Mastepanov, M. et al. Biotic controls on CO2 and CH4 exchange in wetlands – a closed environment study. Biogeochemistry 64, 337–354 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024913730848

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