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Published August 10, 2017 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Variability in methane emissions from West Siberia's shallow boreal lakes on a regional scale and its environmental controls

  • 1. BIO-GEO-CLIM Laboratory, Tomsk State University, Tomsk, 643050, Russia
  • 2. UNESCO Department "Environmental Dynamics and Global Climate Changes", Yugra State University, Khanty-Mansiysk, 628012, Russia
  • 3. Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 72701, USA
  • 4. Institute of Forest Science Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoe, 143030, Russia
  • 5. Faculty of Soil Science, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119992, Russia
  • 6. Department of Biology, Yugra State University, Khanty-Mansiysk, 628012, Russia
  • 7. previously published under the name Irina E. Kleptsova
  • 8. Research Computing Center, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119234, Russia
  • 9. Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119234, Russia
  • 10. Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, 119992, Russia
  • 11. Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, 305-8506, Japan
  • 12. Geoscience and Environment Toulouse, Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse, 31400, France

Description

Small lakes represent an important source of atmospheric CH4 from northern wetlands. However, spatiotemporal variations in flux magnitudes and the lack of knowledge about their main environmental controls contribute large uncertainty into the global CH4 budget. In this study, we measured methane fluxes from small lakes using chambers and bubble traps. Field investigations were carried out in July–August 2014 within the West Siberian middle and southern taiga zones. The average and median of measured methane chamber fluxes were 0.32 and 0.30 mgCH4 m−2 h−1 for middle taiga lakes and 8.6 and 4.1 mgCH4 m−2 h−1 for southern taiga lakes, respectively. Pronounced flux variability was found during measurements on individual lakes, between individual lakes and between zones. To analyze these differences and the influences of environmental controls, we developed a new dynamic process-based model. It shows good performance with emission rates from the southern taiga lakes and poor performance for individual lakes in the middle taiga region. The model shows that, in addition to well-known controls such as temperature, pH and lake depth, there are significant variations in the maximal methane production potential between these climatic zones. In addition, the model shows that variations in gas-filled pore space in lake sediments are capable of controlling the total methane emissions from individual lakes. The CH4 emissions exhibited distinct zonal differences not only in absolute values but also in their probability density functions: the middle taiga lake fluxes were best described by a lognormal distribution while the southern taiga lakes followed a power-law distribution. The latter suggests applicability of self-organized criticality theory for methane emissions from the southern taiga zone, which could help to explain the strong variability within individual lakes.

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Funding

PAGE21 – Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century 282700
European Commission