Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions
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10.5194/acpd-7-14011-2007
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/14011/2007/
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/14011/2007/acpd-7-14011-2007.html
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/14011/2007/acpd-7-14011-2007.pdf
14011
14039
2007-09-28
Methane emissions from boreal and tropical forest ecosystems derived from in-situ measurements
V. Sinha
J. Williams
williams@mpch-mainz.mpg.de
P. J. Crutzen
J. Lelieveld
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, J.J. Becher Weg 27, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Methane is a climatologically important greenhouse gas, which plays a key
role in regulating water vapour in the stratosphere and hydroxyl radicals in
the troposphere. Recent findings that vegetation emits methane have
stimulated efforts to ascertain the impact of this source on the global
budget. In this work, we present the results of high frequency (ca. 1 min<sup>−1</sup>) methane measurements conducted in the boreal forests of
Finland and the tropical forests of Suriname, in April–May, 2005 and October
2005 respectively. The measurements were performed using a gas chromatograph
– flame ionization detector (GC-FID). The average of the median mixing
ratios during a typical diel cycle were 1.83 μmol mol<sup>−1</sup> and 1.74 μmol mol<sup>−1</sup>
for the boreal forest ecosystem and tropical forest ecosystem respectively, with remarkable similarity in the time series of
both the boreal and tropical diel profiles. Night time methane emission flux
of the boreal forest ecosystem, calculated from the increase of methane
during the night and measured nocturnal boundary layer heights yields a flux
of (3.62±0.87)×10<sup>11</sup> molecules cm<sup>−2</sup> s<sup>−1</sup>(or 45.5±11 Tg CH<sub>4</sub> yr<sup>−1</sup>
for global boreal forest area). This is a source
contribution of circa 8% of the global methane budget. These results
highlight the importance of the boreal and tropical forest ecosystems for
the global budget of methane. The results are also discussed in the context
of recent work reporting high methane mixing ratios over tropical forests
using space borne near infra-red spectroscopy measurements.
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