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Ozegahara Mire is the largest alpine mire in Japan. The mire has been preserved as the precious peatland ecosystem with high ecological diversity. After the late 20th century, the mire has been exposed to ecosystem disturbance by mire flooding due to heavy rain as well as invaded Sika deer. Especially, browsing and digging of the mire vegetation by invaded Sika deer have caused considerable impacts on not only vegetation but also physicochemical properties of the mire peat soil. Little information has been published on the effect of flooding and Sika deer disturbance on greenhouse gas emission from the mire. This study aims to provide investigation about the effects of Sika deer disturbance on the soil physicochemical properties and the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from Ozegahara Mire. Soil and gas samples were collected at 14 fixed plots on 5 sites with and without mire disturbance by Sika deer at eastern Naka-tashiro of Ozegahara Mire through 5 months of 2019 (June to October). Groundwater levels at the study sites were measured each month using hand measurements and continuously using water level loggers. Soil samples were collected with a trowel and gas samples were collected in cylindrical polyvinyl chloride chambers installed on the study sites. Subsequent physicochemical analysis of the soil samples and the gas chromatographic analysis of the gas samples were conducted at the laboratory. Groundwater level displayed similar seasonal change in two sites, being affected by precipitation. The concentrations of NH4+ nitrogen in the disturbed sites were higher than those in the undisturbed sites. Mechanical disturbance of the peat soils by deer resulted in mineralization of organic matter. CO2 and CH4 fluxes from the disturbed sites were lower than those from the undisturbed sites where highest fluxes were recorded in August. Negative correlation was found between CO2 and groundwater level (r = −0.327, p < 0.05), suggesting the importance of groundwater level in greenhouse gas flux. These results indicate the marked influences of the mire disturbance by Sika deer on physicochemical properties of the peat soils and greenhouse gas fluxes at Ozegahara Mire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Methane is one of the greenhouse gases emitted from paddy soil ecosystems and may induce global warming and climate change; therefore, mitigation options are urgently required to establish mitigation technology to reduce methane emission without affecting rice production. Methane is produced by a balance between oxidizing agents (such as iron) and reducing agents (easily decomposable soil organic matter), according to the so-called Takai theory. To evaluate options for mitigating methane production potential and to examine the applicability of the Takai theory in Southeast Asian paddy soils, 23 soil samples were collected from Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Vietnam. These soil samples were anaerobically incubated to measure their methane production potential and examined to see whether their chemical properties, such as the ferrous, total iron, and organic matter contents, were correlated. We found a significant negative correlation between the methane production potential and the total iron content, and a positive correlation between the methane production potential and the hexose content, as an index for a soil’s easily decomposable organic matter content. The methane–C/CO2–C production ratio was also positively correlated with the mineralizable nitrogen/ferrous contents ratio, which indicated that the Takai theory, established for Japanese paddy soils, is also useful in Southeast Asian paddy soils and that the soil’s iron content is important to estimate the methane production potential. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]