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Quantifying the temperature sensitivity of methane (CH4) production is crucial for predicting how wetland ecosystems will respond to climate warming. Typically, the temperature sensitivity (often quantified as a Q10 value) is derived from laboratory incubation studies and then used in biogeochemical models. However, studies report wide variation in incubation-inferred Q10 values, with a large portion of this variation remaining unexplained. Here we applied observations in a thawing permafrost peatland (Stordalen Mire) and a well-tested process-rich model (ecosys) to interpret incubation observations and investigate controls on inferred CH4 production temperature sensitivity. We developed a field-storage-incubation modeling approach to mimic the full incubation sequence, including field sampling at a particular time in the growing season, refrigerated storage, and laboratory incubation, followed by model evaluation. We found that CH4 production rates during incubation are regulated by substrate availability and active microbial biomass of key microbial functional groups, which are affected by soil storage duration and temperature. Seasonal variation in substrate availability and active microbial biomass of key microbial functional groups led to strong time-of-sampling impacts on CH4 production. CH4 production is higher with less perturbation post-sampling, i.e. shorter storage duration and lower storage temperature. We found a wide range of inferred Q10 values (1.2-3.5), which we attribute to incubation temperatures, incubation duration, storage duration, and sampling time. We also show that Q10 values of CH4 production are controlled by interacting biological, biochemical, and physical processes, which cause the inferred Q10 values to differ substantially from those of the component processes. Terrestrial ecosystem models that use a constant Q10 value to represent temperature responses may therefore predict biased soil carbon cycling under future climate scenarios.

Peatlands are climate critical carbon (C) reservoirs that could become a C source under continued warming. A strong relationship between plant tissue chemistry and the soil organic matter (SOM) that fuels C gas emissions is inferred, but rarely examined at the molecular level. Here we compared Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy measurements of solid phase functionalities in plants and SOM to ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometric analyses of plant and SOM water extracts across a palsa-bog-fen thaw and moisture gradient in an Arctic peatland. From these analyses we calculated the C oxidation state (NOSC), a measure which can be used to assess organic matter quality. Palsa plant extracts had the highest NOSC, indicating high quality, whereas extracts of Sphagnum, which dominated the bog, had the lowest NOSC. The percentage of plant compounds that are less bioavailable and accumulate in the peat, increases from palsa (25%) to fen (41%) to bog (47%), reflecting the pattern of percent Sphagnum cover. The pattern of NOSC in the plant extracts was consistent with the high number of consumed compounds in the palsa and low number of consumed compounds in the bog. However, in the FT-IR analysis of the solid phase bog peat, carbohydrate content was high implying high quality SOM. We explain this discrepancy as the result of low solubilization of bog SOM facilitated by the low pH in the bog which makes the solid phase carbohydrates less available to microbial decomposition. Plant-associated condensed aromatics, tannins, and lignin-like compounds declined in the unsaturated palsa peat indicating decomposition, but lignin-like compounds accumulated in the bog and fen peat where decomposition was presumably inhibited by the anaerobic conditions. A molecular-level comparison of the aboveground C sources and peat SOM demonstrates that climate-associated vegetation shifts in peatlands are important controls on the mechanisms underlying changing C gas emissions.

ABSTRACT Estimates of landfill gas (LFG) collection efficiency are required to estimate methane emissions and the environmental performance of a solid waste landfill. The gas collection efficiency varies with time [...]

Understanding the dynamics of peatland methane (CH4) emissions and quantifying sources of uncertainty in estimating peatland CH4 emissions are critical for mitigating climate change. The relative contributions of CH4 emission pathways through ebullition, plant-mediated transport, and diffusion together with their different transport rates and vulnerability to oxidation determine the quantity of CH4 to be oxidized before leaving the soil. Notwithstanding their importance, the relative contributions of the emission pathways have not been well characterized by experiments or modeling approaches. In particular, the ebullition process is more uncertain and can lead to large uncertainties in modeled CH4 emissions. To improve model simulations of CH4 emission and its pathways, we evaluated two model structures: 1) the Ebullition Bubble Growth volume threshold approach (EBG) and 2) the modified Ebullition Concentration Threshold approach (ECT) using CH4 flux and concentration data collected in a peatland in northern Minnesota, USA. When model parameters were constrained using observed CH4 fluxes, the CH4 emissions simulated by the EBG approach (RMSE = 0.53) had a better agreement with observations than the ECT approach (RMSE = 0.61). Further, the EBG approach simulated a smaller contribution from ebullition but more frequent ebullition events than the ECT approach. The EBG approach yielded greatly improved simulations of pore water CH4 concentrations, especially in the deep soil layers, compared to the ECT approach. When constraining the EBG model with both CH4 flux and concentration data in model-data fusion, uncertainty of the modeled CH4 concentration profiles was reduced by 78 to 86 % in comparison to constraints based on CH4 flux data alone. The improved model capability was attributed to the well-constrained parameters regulating the CH4 production and emission pathways. Our results suggest that the EBG modeling approach better characterizes CH4 emission and underlying mechanisms. Moreover, to achieve the best model results both CH4 flux and concentration data are required to constrain model parameterization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimates of landfill gas (LFG) collection efficiency are required to estimate methane emissions and the environmental performance of a solid waste landfill. The gas collection efficiency varies with time on the basis of the manner in which landfills are designed, operated, and regulated. The literature supports instantaneous collection efficiencies varying between 50% and near 100%, dependent on the cover type and the coverage of the LFG collection system. The authors suggest that the temporally weighted gas collection efficiency, which considers total gas production and collection over the landfill life, is the appropriate way to report collection efficiency. This value was calculated for a range of decay rates representative of refuse buried in arid and wet areas (i.e., >63.5 cm precipitation) and for bioreactor landfills. Temporally weighted collection efficiencies ranging from 67 to 91%, 62 to 86%, and 55 to 78% were calculated at decay rates of 0.02, 0.04, and 0.07 yr-1, respectively. With aggressive gas collection, as would be implemented for a bioreactor landfill, estimated gas collection efficiency ranged from 84 to 67% at decay rates of 0.04 to 0.15 yr-1, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 30-cm-thick biofilter was constructed with compost, which was obtained from Leon County Landfill (Florida). The compost was sieved with 7-mm mesh sieve. The compost consisted of chipped yard waste that was windrowed for about 5 years. Methane was then continuously supplied to the bottom of the biofilter, simultaneously the outflow of methane from the top and the extent of methane oxidation inside the biofilter were periodically measured. A one-dimensional dynamic numerical simulation model was then developed to simulate the methane transport and oxidation within a compost biofilter. This model was designed to incorporate dynamic parameters, such as gas permeability, diffusion coefficient, methanotrophic growth, and viscosity, as functions of water content and temperature. General agreement of methane outflux and oxidation was obtained between model simulations and experimental data. Additional simulations showed that outflux and oxidation had high correlations with temperature, whereas their relationship with water content depended on other factors, such as the influx boundary and the air-filled porosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We performed intensive sampling campaigns of Hg0 fluxes over emergent macrophytes in the Florida Everglades to find a surrogate for Hg fluxes from water and vegetation to identify the mechanisms of emission. We measured daytime lacunal and sediment gas concentrations of Hg0, which suggested that the lacunal space acts as temporary storage for Hg0 and CH4. The absence of detectable Hg0 fluxes measured over uprooted (floating) plants and sediment incubation experiments suggest that the Hg0 emitted from emergent macrophytes such as Typha and Cladium originates in the sediment. HgII in the rhizosphere is reduced to Hg0 in these sediments by various processes, and is then transported by the plants to the atmosphere by two separate processes. At night, Hg0 and CH4 formed in the sediment accumulate in the lacunal space after crossing the root-sediment barrier. At sunrise, a form of pressurized through-flow purges the lacunal space of Typha into the atmosphere forming an early morning emission pulse for both gases, and coincidental peaks of CH4 and Hg0 suggest that the same lacunal gas transport mechanism is involved. Later in the day while the release of methane continues to deplete the lacunal pool, the Hg0 flux increases again to form a second peak in the afternoon when the CH4 emission has decreased. This peak parallels that of transpiration, and is presumably due to xylem transport of Hg0 from continued production of Hg0 in the rhizosphere, perhaps in response to release of root exudates. A mass balance for this ∼1500ha wetland suggested that the total transpiration of Hg0 is ∼1kgyr-1, or ∼20 times the amount evaded from the water surface. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]