Small spatial but large sporadic variability in methane emission measured from a patterned boreal bog

Abstract

We measured methane fluxes of a patterned bog from six different plant community types in three growing seasons 2012-2014 using the static chamber method. A mixed effects model was applied for 15 quantifying the effect of the controlling factors on the methane flux.The plant community types differed from each other in their water level, total leaf area (LAITOT) and leaf area of aerenchymatous plant species (LAIAER). Excluding the highest 2.5 % of all fluxes, methane emissions ranged from -309 to 556 mg m -2 d -1 . Although methane fluxes increased with increasing peat temperature, LAITOT and LAIAER, they had no correlation with water table or with plant community type. 20The only exception were higher fluxes from hummocks than from other plant community types in 2013.