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A Multi-Year Record of Methane Flux at the Mer Bleue Bog, Southern Canada

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Abstract

The Mer Bleue peatland is a large ombrotrophic bog with hummock-lawn microtopography, poor fen sections and beaver ponds at the margin. Average growing-season (May–October) fluxes of methane (CH4) measured in 2002–2003 across the bog ranged from less than 5 mg m−2 d−1 in hummocks, to greater than 100 mg m−2 d−1 in lawns and ponds. The average position of the water table explained about half of the variation in the season average CH4 fluxes, similar to that observed in many other peatlands in Canada and elsewhere. The flux varied most when the water table position ranged between −15 and −40 cm. To better establish the factors that influence this variability, we measured CH4 flux at approximately weekly intervals from May to November for 5 years (2004–2008) at 12 collars representing the water table and vegetation variations typical of the peatland. Over the snow-free season, peat temperature is the dominant correlate and the difference among the collars’ seasonal average CH4 flux is partially dependent on water table position. A third important correlate on CH4 flux is vegetation, particularly the presence of Eriophorum vaginatum, which increases CH4 flux, as well as differences in the potential of the peat profile to produce and consume CH4 under anaerobic and aerobic conditions. The combination of peat temperature and water table position with vegetation cover was able to explain approximately 44% of the variation in daily CH4 flux, based on 1097 individual measurements. There was considerable inter-annual variation in fluxes, associated with varying peat thermal and water table regimes in response to variations in weather, but also by variations in the water level in peripheral ponds, associated with beaver dam activity. Raised water level in the beaver ponds led to higher water tables and increased CH4 emission in the peatland.

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Acknowledgements

We thank David Brodkey, Hélène Lesage, Michael Wironen, and especially Mike Dalva for their help in the field and laboratory, and Margaret Kalacska and Pablo Arroyo for estimating cotton grass coverage. We are grateful to the National Capital Commission for their logistic help and permission to use Mer Bleue and to the Associate Editor and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments. This work has been supported primarily by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Mer Bleue facility has also received support from NSERC, the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences and BIOCAP Canada, through the Fluxnet Canada Research Network and the Canadian Carbon Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, and Global Environmental & Climate Change Centre, McGill University, 805 Sherbrooke St. W, Montreal, Quebec, H3A2K6, Canada

    Tim R. Moore, Allison De Young & Nigel T. Roulet

  2. Mount Holyoke College, 50 College Street, South Hadley, Massachusetts, 01075, USA

    Jill L. Bubier

  3. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada

    Elyn R. Humphreys

  4. Department of Geography, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J7B8, Canada

    Peter M. Lafleur

Authors
  1. Tim R. Moore
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  2. Allison De Young
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  3. Jill L. Bubier
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  4. Elyn R. Humphreys
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  5. Peter M. Lafleur
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  6. Nigel T. Roulet
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Correspondence to Tim R. Moore.

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Author Contributions

TRM conceived and directed the study; ADY collected and analyzed much of the data; JLB, ERH, PML and NTR contributed data to the study and aided in the interpretation of the results; all six wrote the paper.

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Moore, T.R., De Young, A., Bubier, J.L. et al. A Multi-Year Record of Methane Flux at the Mer Bleue Bog, Southern Canada. Ecosystems 14, 646–657 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9435-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-011-9435-9

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