Methane emissions from fens in Alberta’s boreal region: Reference data for functional evaluation of restoration outcomes
Abstract
The aim of the study was to document methane (CH4) dynamics from fen
ecosystems in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region (AOSR) in northern Alberta to create a
reference database for evaluation of peatland restoration and reclamation projects in
the region. The study included three types of fens commonly occurring in this region:
poor fen (open and treed), moderately-rich treed fen, and open saline fen. We
quantified CH 4 fluxes, pore water concentration (PW[CH 4]), and production
potential together with ecohydrological variables that may influence CH4 dynamics
over four growing seasons. Mean (standard deviation) fluxes for open and treed poor
fen (99.8 (269.7) and 68.3 (118.8) mg CH4 m -2 d -1, respectively) were higher
than for treed rich (32.8 (63.7) mg CH4 m -2 d -1) and open saline fens (34.6
(91.3) mg CH4 m -2 d -1). The total growing season CH4 emissions from these
fens ranged between 3.7 and 11.3 g CH4 m -2. Methane production potential
varied from 0.1 (0.1) µmol CH4 g peat -1 d -1 at the saline fen to 4.6 (0.8) µmol CH
4 g peat -1 d -1 at the treed rich fen. The variability of CH4 fluxes and pore water
concentration between study sites and years was mostly controlled water table (WT)
and soil temperature indicating that these variables should be used to assess the
expected CH4 flux in peatland reclamation projects. Large inter-annual variability in
CH4 flux illustrates the importance of multi-year records for data used in functional evaluation of restoration outcomes.
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Cite this version of the work
Aneta Bienida, Vinay Date, Roxane Andersen, Felix Nwaishi, Jonathan S. Price, Md. Sharif Mahmood, Maria Strack
(2020).
Methane emissions from fens in Alberta’s boreal region: Reference data for functional evaluation of restoration outcomes. UWSpace.
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/19409
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