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Wetlands are the largest natural source of atmospheric methane. Here, we assess controls on methane flux using a database of approximately 19 000 instantaneous measurements from 71 wetland sites located across subtropical, temperate, and northern high latitude regions. Our analyses confirm general controls on wetland methane emissions from soil temperature, water table, and vegetation, but also show that these relationships are modified depending on wetland type (bog, fen, or swamp), region (subarctic to temperate), and disturbance. Fen methane flux was more sensitive to vegetation and less sensitive to temperature than bog or swamp fluxes. The optimal water table for methane flux was consistently below the peat surface in bogs, close to the peat surface in poor fens, and above the peat surface in rich fens. However, the largest flux in bogs occurred when dry 30-day averaged antecedent conditions were followed by wet conditions, while in fens and swamps, the largest flux occurred when both 30-day averaged antecedent and current conditions were wet. Drained wetlands exhibited distinct characteristics, e.g. the absence of large flux following wet and warm conditions, suggesting that the same functional relationships between methane flux and environmental conditions cannot be used across pristine and disturbed wetlands. Together, our results suggest that water table and temperature are dominant controls on methane flux in pristine bogs and swamps, while other processes, such as vascular transport in pristine fens, have the potential to partially override the effect of these controls in other wetland types. Because wetland types vary in methane emissions and have distinct controls, these ecosystems need to be considered separately to yield reliable estimates of global wetland methane release. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) play important roles in peatlands, through their influence on plant production and peat decomposition rates and on redox reactions, respectively, and peatlands contain substantial stores of these two elements. Using peat N and S concentrations and dry bulk density and210Pb dating, we determined the rates of N and S accumulation over the past 150 years in hummock and hollow profiles from 23 ombrotrophic bogs in eastern Canada. Concentrations of N and S averaged 0.80% and 0.18%, respectively, generally increased with depth in the profile and there was a weak but significant correlation between N and S concentrations. Rates of N and S accumulation over the past 50–150 years ranged from 0.5 to 4.8 g N m−2 yr−1 and from 0.1 to 0.9 g S m−2 yr−1. There were significant but weak correlations between C, N and S accumulation rates over 50-, 100- and 150-year periods. Over the last 50 years, rates of S accumulation showed little differentiation between hummocks and hollows, whereas the pattern for N accumulation was more variable (hummock minus hollow rate ranged from−1 to+1.5 g N m−2 yr−1), with hummocks generally having a larger N accumulation rate, correlated with the rate of carbon (C) accumulation. There was a modest but significant positive correlation between 50-year rates of N accumulation and wet atmospheric deposition of N measured between 1990 and 1996, with accumulation rates about four times that of wet deposition. The difference between deposition and accumulation of N is attributed to organic N deposition, dry deposition and N2 fixation. A weaker, but still significant, correlation was observed between 50-year S accumulation and 1990–1996 wet atmospheric S deposition, with about 75% of the deposited S accumulating in the peat. A laboratory experiment with peat cores exposed to varying water table position and simulated N and S deposition, showed that on average 87% and 98% of the deposited NH4+ and NO3−, respectively, and 58% of the deposited S were retained in the vegetation and unsaturated zone of the cores, supporting the results from the field study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We showed that sandy subsoils beneath peat near Ramsey Lake, MI, contained 7.5 to 8.0 kg organic C (OC) m-2 to a depth of 70 cm, compared with 1.6 to 3.6 kg m-2 in adjacent forest soils, from which the peatland had evolved through paludification. Compared with the soils beneath the forest, those beneath the peat contained similar amounts of oxalate-extractable Al (Al0) and less Fe, owing to loss of Fe under reduced leached conditions beneath the peat. Most of the extractable Al in the mineral horizons beneath peat was organically bound. Atomic pyrophosphate-extractable (Fep + Alp) Fe + Al/C ratios were smaller (<0.2:1) in the mineral horizons beneath peat than in the forest mineral subsoils (generally >0.2:1), indicating larger inputs and retention in the mineral subsoils beneath peat. Concentration of OC in subsoil samples was strongly (r² = 0.58, p < 0.001) related to the subsoil Al, null-point dissolved organic C (DOC) and clay concentrations. A DOC sorption study using peat pore water ranging from 0 to 117 mg DOC L-1 revealed null-point DOC (DOCnp) concentrations (at which there is neither gain nor loss of OC by the soil) varied from <1 to 417 mg DOC L-1 and was primarily related to Feo (negatively), Alo (negatively), and C (positively). We suggest that the increase in mineral subsoil OC beneath peat is related to the sorption of DOC carried by pore water percolating through the mineral subsoil, combined with slow rates of mineralization of sorbed DOC under anoxic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]