Potential methane production and methane oxidation rates in peatland ecosystems of the Appalachian Mountains, United States

Abstract

Potential rates of methane production and carbon dioxide production were measured on 11 dates in 1986 in peat from six plant communities typical of moss‐dominated peatlands in the Appalachian Mountains. Annual methane production ranged from 2.7 to 17.5 mol m−2, and annual carbon dioxide production ranged from 30.6 to 79.0 mol m−2. The wide range in methane production values among the communities found within a single peatland indicates that obtaining one production value for a peatland may not be appropriate. Low temperature constrained the potential for methane production in winter, while the chemical quality of the peat substrate appears to control methane production in the summer. Methane oxidation was measured throughout the peat profile to a depth of 30 cm. Values for methane oxidation ranged from 0.08 to 18.7 uM h−1 among the six plant communities. Aerobic methane‐oxidizing bacteria probably mediated most of the activity. On a daily basis during the summer, between 11 and 100% of the methane produced is susceptible to oxidation within the peat column. Pools of dissolved methane and dissolved carbon dioxide in pore waters were less than 0.2 and less than 1.0 mol m−2, respectively, indicating that methane does not accumulate in the pore waters. Peatlands have been considered as an important source of biologically produced methane. Despite the high rates of methane production, the high rates of methane oxidation dampen the potential emission of methane to the atmosphere.

Methane fluxes, concentrations, and production in two Adirondack beaver impoundments

“…For example, depth-integrated CH, production of 647 pmol cm-2 min-' (Table 3) minus CH, release into the atmosphere of 80 pmol cme2 min-l suggests that 88% of the CH, produced is oxidized. Yavitt et al (1988) has shown that > 50% of the CH, produced by peats in a wide range of wetlands is oxidized before it can be released into the atmosphere. Collectively, these data indicate that impoundment scdimcnts produce more CH, than wetlands and that more of the CH, pro- duced in the impoundments finds its way into the atmosphere.…”

Anaerobic oxidation of methane: an underappreciated aspect of methane cycling in peatland ecosystems?

“…AOM as a sink for CH 4 has been alluded to in peat soils (Nedwell and Watson, 1995;Yavitt et al, 1988), but until recently no data had been presented. Rather, conceptual models of CH 4 cycling in peat-forming wetlands (Fig.…”

Influence of elevated ozone concentration on methanotrophic bacterial communities in soil under field condition

“…In this research, the pmoA gene number of soil total methanotrophic bacteria, the numbers of type I and type II methanotrophic bacteria were not in significant correlation with PMOR, indicating that PMOR is not determined by the number of methanotrophic bacteria. PMPR is generally associated with the activity of soil methanotrophic bacteria (Yavitt et al, 1988). The research on the influence of different O 3 concentrations on the PMPR of winter wheat field soil indicated that the soil PMPR increased as at deeper depth without O 3 fumigation.…”