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The Characteristics and Seasonal Variation of Methane Fluxes From an Alpine Wetland in the Qinghai Lake watershed, China

  • Wetlands and Global Change
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Abstract

Alpine wetlands are an important natural source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere. However, the temporal variations and main driving factors of CH4 fluxes in alpine wetlands are not yet well understood. In this study, CH4 fluxes were measured from an alpine wetland in the Qinghai Lake using eddy covariance (EC) technique. Strong seasonal variability in the daily CH4 fluxes was observed, ranging from − 18.24 mg CH4 m− 2 d− 1 during the non-growing season to 117.44 mg CH4 m− 2 d− 1 during the growing season in 2017. The annual CH4 budget was 9.41 g CH4 m− 2. The growing season CH4 flux accounted for 91.5 % of the annual budget. At the daily scale, the CH4 fluxes increased significantly as the net radiation, air temperature, vapor pressure deficit, soil temperature, and soil volumetric water content at 5 cm depth increased. Additionally, correlation analysis also revealed that daily CH4 flux was significantly related to CO2 flux when daily CO2 flux was negative, but there was no correlation when daily CO2 flux was positive. Path analysis showed that seasonal variations of soil temperature at 5 cm depth and CO2 flux had strong direct effects on daily CH4 fluxes.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

“Not applicable” for this section.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42061008), and the Qinghai Province Key Laboratory of Physical Geography and Environmental Process, China.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31260130).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Ecological Forecasting and Global Change, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Fangtao Wu & Changhui Peng

  2. School of Geographical Science, Qinghai Normal University, 810008, Xining, China

    Shengkui Cao, Guangchao Cao & Kelong Chen

  3. Qinghai Province Key Laboratory of Physical Geography and Environmental Process, Qinghai Normal University, 810008, Xining, China

    Shengkui Cao & Guangchao Cao

  4. Institut des Sciences de l’Environnement, Départment des Sciences Biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), 201 Président-Kennedy, Montréal, QC, H2X 3Y7, Canada

    Changhui Peng

  5. State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dryland Farming on the Loess Plateau, College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, 712100, Yangling, China

    Changhui Peng

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  1. Fangtao Wu
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  2. Shengkui Cao
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  3. Guangchao Cao
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  4. Kelong Chen
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: SC CP. Performed the experiments: FW SC. Collected the data: FW. Analyzed the data: FW GC. Contributed analysis tools: KC. Wrote the paper: FW CP.

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Correspondence to Shengkui Cao or Changhui Peng.

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Wu, F., Cao, S., Cao, G. et al. The Characteristics and Seasonal Variation of Methane Fluxes From an Alpine Wetland in the Qinghai Lake watershed, China. Wetlands 41, 53 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01415-8

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