Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3051-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3051-2022
Research article
 | 
24 Jun 2022
Research article |  | 24 Jun 2022

High peatland methane emissions following permafrost thaw: enhanced acetoclastic methanogenesis during early successional stages

Liam Heffernan, Maria A. Cavaco, Maya P. Bhatia, Cristian Estop-Aragonés, Klaus-Holger Knorr, and David Olefeldt

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Cited articles

Adamczyk, M., Perez-Mon, C., Gunz, S., and Frey, B.: Strong shifts in microbial community structure are associated with increased litter input rather than temperature in High Arctic soils, Soil Biol. Biochem., 151, 1–14, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2020.108054, 2020. 
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Bauer, I. E., Gignac, L. D., and Vitt, D. H.: Development of a peatland complex in boreal western Canada: Lateral site expansion and local variability in vegetation succession and long-term peat accumulation, Can. J. Bot., 81, 833–847, https://doi.org/10.1139/b03-076, 2003. 
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Short summary
Permafrost thaw in peatlands leads to waterlogged conditions, a favourable environment for microbes producing methane (CH4) and high CH4 emissions. High CH4 emissions in the initial decades following thaw are due to a vegetation community that produces suitable organic matter to fuel CH4-producing microbes, along with warm and wet conditions. High CH4 emissions after thaw persist for up to 100 years, after which environmental conditions are less favourable for microbes and high CH4 emissions.
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