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National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis

Project Description

While biogenic CH4 emissions are thought to be of a similar magnitude to anthropogenic emissions, biogenic emissions remain the most uncertain source of the global CH4 budget. The vast areas with relatively small uptake and emission rates have been largely understudied but could contribute significantly to regional and global budgets. Upland ecosystems can exhibit unexpectedly large annual CH4 fluxes and should not be excluded from observation networks. Yet, current eddy covariance towers measuring CH4 fluxes are biased toward wetlands, and other areas where we expect to observe large fluxes. To improve our understanding of biogenic fluxes, the Flux Gradient Project will utilize infrastructure from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) at co-located LTER-NEON sites to calculate CH4 fluxes. In addition to the fluxes at co-located sites, we will also utilize CH4 fluxes from LTER, Ameriflux and Fluxnet sites. We hypothesize that upland ecosystems will fluctuate from being a sink to a source depending on moisture conditions. Quantifying the CH4 budget of natural ecosystems is important for assessing realistic pathways to mitigate climate change, because uncertainties in the magnitude, size, and location of sources and sinks are currently limiting budget development.

LTER Flux

Principal Investigator(s)

Sparkle Malone, Jaclyn H. Matthes

Project Dates

Start: April 1, 2023

End: March 30, 2025

active

Participants

Angel Chen
University of California, Santa Barbara
Roisin Commane
Columbia University
Kyle Delwiche
University of California, Berkeley
Ankur Desai
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Christopher R. Florian
National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc. (NEON)
Alexis Helgeson
Boston University
Sam Jurado
Cornell University
Evan Kane
Michigan Technological University
Sara Knox
University of British Columbia
Nicholas J. Lyon
University of California, Santa Barbara
Sparkle Malone
Yale University
Jaclyn H. Matthes
Harvard University
Stefan Metzger
National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc. (NEON)
Patricia Oikawa
California State University, East Bay
David E. Reed
Yale University
Camilo Rey-Sanchez
North Carolina State University
Cove Sturtevant
National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc. (NEON)
Susanne Wiesner
University of Wisconsin River Falls