Are ghost forest trees a substantial source of methane from reservoirs?

Dittmann, Johannes; Maher, Damien T.; Johnston, Scott G.; Tait, Douglas R.; Gomez-Alvarez, Paula; Grinham, Alistair; Sturm, Katrin; Jeffrey, Luke C.

doi:10.5194/bg-23-4893-2026

Articles | Volume 23, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-4893-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-4893-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 13

Research article

|

16 Jul 2026

Research article |

| 16 Jul 2026

Are ghost forest trees a substantial source of methane from reservoirs?

Johannes Dittmann, Damien T. Maher, Scott G. Johnston, Douglas R. Tait, Paula Gomez-Alvarez, Alistair Grinham, Katrin Sturm, and Luke C. Jeffrey

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-4893-2026-supplement

Data sets

Dataset supporting the manuscript: "Are ghost forests a substantial source of methane from reservoirs?" J. Dittmann https://doi.org/10.17632/vryhr6gcxr.1

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Short summary

Reservoir dead trees (‘ghost forests’) are an overlooked methane (CH₄) source in standing freshwaters. We measured CH₄ fluxes from 34 trees at multiple stem heights, alongside aquatic CH₄fluxes and physicochemistry, across two field campaigns. Ghost forest CH₄ fluxes were highest near reservoir inflows, with tree CH₄contributing extra emissions of 14–15 % on top of the commonly quantified pathways of ebullition and diffusion.