Marine animals significantly increase tundra N2O and CH4emissions in maritime Antarctica

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

AbstractMost studies on greenhouse gas emissions from animals concentrated on domestic animals, with limited data available from wild animals. The number of marine animals is potentially large in coastal Antarctica. In this paper, N2O and CH4emissions were investigated from a penguin colony, a seal colony, a skua colony, the adjacent animal‐lacking tundra, and background tundra sites to test the effects of marine animals on their fluxes in maritime Antarctica. Extremely high N2O emissions occurred in the penguin puddles (mean 392 µg N2O m−2h−1) and seal wallows (mean 579 µg N2O m−2h−1). The N2O emissions from animal colony tundra (13–57 µg N2O m−2h−1) are much higher than those from the animal‐lacking tundra, whereas the background tundra showed negligible N2O fluxes. Penguin puddles and seal wallows were stronger CH4emitters than animal colony tundra soils, while animal‐lacking tundra soils were strong CH4sinks. Overall high N2O and CH4emissions were modulated by soil physical and chemical processes associated with marine animal activities: sufficient supply of the nutrients NH4+–N and NO3−–N, total nitrogen, and total organic carbon from marine animal excreta, animal tramp, and high soil water‐filled pore space. Laboratory incubation experiments further confirmed that penguin and seal colony soils produced much higher N2O and CH4emissions than animal‐lacking tundra soils. Our results indicate that marine animal colonies are the hot spots for N2O and CH4emissions in maritime Antarctica, and even at the global scale, and current climate warming will further increase their emissions.