Nature 366, 51 - 53 (04 November 1993); doi:10.1038/366051a0

Effect of a lowered water table on nitrous oxide fluxes from northern peatlands

Pertti J. Martikainen^*, Hannu Nykänen^*, Patrick Crill^† & Jouko Silvola^‡

^* Department of Environmental Microbiology, National Public Health Institute, PO Box 95, FIN-70701 Kuopio, Finland
^† Complex Systems Research Center, EOS, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3525, USA
^‡ Department of Biology, University of Joensuu, PO Box 111, FIN-80101 Joensuu, Finland

NORTHERN peatlands contain 20–30% of the total organic nitrogen and carbon in the world's soils^1,2, and thus they apparently have the potential to exert a significant influence on the global atmospheric budget of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (N₂O). In the drier, warmer summer conditions predicted at high latitudes by some climate models^3,4 as a result of greenhouse-gas forcing, northern peatlands would become drier, increasing the rate of mineralization of organic matter^1,5 and of the microbial processes that produce N₂O. These regions might therefore be expected to exert a strong feedback on climate. But whereas methane emissions have been well studied^6,7, little is known about the effect on N₂O fluxes of changes in the level of peatland water tables. Here we present a comparison of present-day N₂O fluxes from virgin peatlands in Finland with those from sites in the same regions that were drained by ditching 30 and 50 years ago. The lowered water table had no effect on N₂O emissions from nutrient-poor peat but enhanced those from nutrient-rich peat. We estimate that equivalent drying caused by climate change would increase the total emissions of N₂O from northern peatlands by 0.03–0.1 teragrams of nitrogen per year, which is just 0.3–1% of the present global annual emissions. Thus northern peatlands are unlikely to exert a significant climate feedback from N₂O emissions.

References

1.	Gorham, E. Ecol. Applic. 1(2), 182−195 (1991).
2.	Sjörs, H. Int. J. Ecol. Envir. Sci. 7, 11−14 (1981).
3.	Manabe, S. & Wetherald, R. T. Science 232, 626−628 (1986).
4.	Mitchell, J. F. B. Rev. Geophys. 27, 115−139 (1989).
5.	Oechel, W. C. et al. Nature 361, 520−523 (1993).
6.	Harris, R. C., Gorham, E., Sebacher, D. I., Bartlett, K. B. & Flebbe, P. A. Nature 315, 652−654 (1985).
7.	Tyler, S. C. in Microbial Production and Consumption of Greenhouse Gases: Methane, Nitrogen Oxides, and Halomethanes (eds Rogers, J. E. & Whitman, W. B.) 7−38 (Am. Soc. for Microbiol, Washington DC, 1991).
8.	Laine, J. & Vanha-Majamaa, I. Ann. Bot. Fenn. 29, 213−233 (1992).
9.	Hemond, H. F. Ecology 64, 99−109 (1983).
10.	Rosswall, T. & Granhall, U. Ecol. Bull. (Stockholm) 30, 209−234 (1980).
11.	Williams, B. L. & Wheatley, R. E. Biol. Fertil. Soils 6, 141−147 (1988).
12.	Rangeley, A. & Knowles, R. Soil Biol. Biochem. 20, 385−391 (1988).
13.	Koerselman, W., De Caluwe, H. & Kieskamp, W. M. Biogeochemistry 8, 153−165 (1989).
14.	Amador, J. A. & Jones, R. D. Soil Biol. Biochem. 25, 793−801 (1993).
15.	Davidson, E. A. in Microbial Production and Consumption of Greenhouse Gases: Methane, Nitrogen Oxides, and Halomethanes (eds Rogers, J. E. & Whitman, W. B.) 219−235 (Am. Soc. for Microbiol., Washington DC, 1991).
16.	Matson, P. A., Gower, S. T., Volkman C., Billow, C. & Grier, C. C. Biogeochemistry 18, 101−117 (1992).
17.	Goodroad, L. L., Keeney, D. R. J. envir. Qual. 13, 448−452 (1984).
18.	Solomon, A. M. Oecologia 68, 567−579 (1986).
19.	Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Climate Change—the IPCC Scientific Assesment. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990).
20.	Roulet, N., Moore, T., Bubier, J. & Lafleur, P. Tellus 44B, 100−105 (1992).
21.	Moore, T. R & Knowles, R. Can. J. Soil Sci. 67, 77−81 (1987).
22.	Martikainen, P. J., Nykänen, H., Crill, P. & Silvola, J. Suo 43, (4−5), 237−240 (1992).
23.	Silvola, J., Välijoki, J. & Aaltonen, H. Acta for. fenn. 191, 1−32 (1985).
24.	Ruuhijärvi, R. in Ecosystems of the World 4B Mires: Swamp, Bog, Fen and Moor. Regional Studies (ed. Gore, A. J. P.) 47−67 (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983).
25.	Keltikangas, M., Laine, J., Puttonen, P. & Seppälä K. Acta for. fenn. 193, 1−94 (1986).
26.	Botch, M. S. & Masing, V. V. in Ecosystems of the World 4B Mires: Swamp, Bog, Fen and Moor. Regional Studies (ed. Gore, A. J. P.) 95−152 (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983).
27.	Hofstetter, R. H. in Ecosystems of the World 4B Mires: Swamp, Bog, Fen and Moor. Regional Studies (ed. Gore, A. J. P.) 201−244 (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983).
28.	Zoltai, S. C. & Pollet, F. C. in Ecosystems of the World 48 Mires: Swamp, Bog, Fen and Moor. Regional Studies (ed. Gore, A. J. P.) 245−268 (Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1983).
29.	Crill, P. M. et al. Glob Biogeochem. Cycles 2, 299−327 (1988).