Sunlight stimulates methane uptake and nitrous oxide emission from the High Arctic tundra

Abstract

Many environmental factors affecting methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes have been investigated during the processes of carbon and nitrogen transformation in the boreal tundra. However, effects of sunlight on CH4 and N2O fluxes and their budgets were neglected in the boreal tundra. Here, summertime CH4 and N2O fluxes in the presence and total absence of sunlight were investigated at the six tundra sites (DM1-DM6) on Ny-Ålesund in the High Arctic. The mean CH4 fluxes at the tundra sites ranged from −4.7 to −158.6μg CH4 m−2h−1 in the presence of light, indicating that a large CH4 sink occurred in the tundra soils. However, enhanced CH4 emission in total absence of light occurred at all the tundra sites. The mean N2O fluxes ranged from 7.4 to 14.6μg N2O m−2h−1 in the presence of light, whereas in the absence of light all the tundra sites generally released less N2O, and even significant N2O uptake occurred there. Soil temperature, chamber temperature and soil moisture showed no significant correlations with tundra CH4 and N2O flux. The presence of sunlight increased tundra CH4 uptake by 114.2μg CH4 m−2h−1 and N2O emission by 10.9μg N2O m−2h−1 compared with total absence of light. Overall our results showed that tundra ecosystem switched from CH4 sink and N2O emission source in the presence of light to CH4 emission source and N2O sink in the absence of light. Therefore sunlight had an important effect on CH4 and N2O budgets in the High Arctic tundra. The exclusion of sunlight might overestimate CH4 budgets, but underestimate N2O budgets in the Arctic tundra ecosystem.