We used an automated, multiplexing gas-exchange system to measure the net exchange of CO(2) at the surfaces of three shady feather moss and three exposed sphagnum moss sites in a black spruce forest during 35 days at the end of the 1995 growing season. Midday gross photosynthesis was 0.5 to 1.0 micro mol m(-2) s(-1) by feather moss and 0.5 to 2.5 micro mol m(-2) s(-1) by sphagnum moss. Photosynthesis by sphagnum moss was reduced by approximately 70% at 0 degrees C, and reached a maximum rate at 8 degrees C. Nighttime CO(2) efflux, the sum of soil and moss respiration was 1 to 2.5 micro mol m(-2) s(-1) above feather moss and 0.5 to 1.5 micro mol m(-2) s(-1) above sphagnum moss at moss temperatures of 0 to 15 degrees C. The higher rates of respiration at the feather moss sites probably reflected a greater belowground input of carbon from black spruce, and the lower rates of photosynthesis were probably associated with shading by the black spruce canopy. Photosynthesis by moss accounted for 10 to 50% of whole-forest gross CO(2) uptake measured simultaneously by eddy covariance. Respiration at the moss surface was 50 to 90% of whole-forest respiration, with a decreasing fraction on warm nights apparently because of a disproportionate rise in aboveground respiration.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and there are concerns that its natural emissions from the Arctic could act as a substantial positive feedback to anthropogenic global warming. Determining the sources of methane emissions and the biogeochemical processes controlling them is important for understanding present and future Arctic contributions to atmospheric methane budgets. Here we apply measurements of multiply-substituted isotopologues, or clumped isotopes, of methane as a new tool to identify the origins of ebullitive fluxes in Alaska, Sweden and the Arctic Ocean. When methane forms in isotopic equilibrium, clumped isotope measurements indicate the formation temperature. In some microbial methane, however, non-equilibrium isotope effects, probably related to the kinetics of methanogenesis, lead to low clumped isotope values. We identify four categories of emissions in the studied samples: thermogenic methane, deep subsurface or marine microbial methane formed in isotopic equilibrium, freshwater microbial methane with non-equilibrium clumped isotope values, and mixtures of deep and shallow methane (i.e., combinations of the first three end members). Mixing between deep and shallow methane sources produces a non-linear variation in clumped isotope values with mixing proportion that provides new constraints for the formation environment of the mixing end-members. Analyses of microbial methane emitted from lakes, as well as a methanol-consuming methanogen pure culture, support the hypothesis that non-equilibrium clumped isotope values are controlled, in part, by kinetic isotope effects induced during enzymatic reactions involved in methanogenesis. Our results indicate that these kinetic isotope effects vary widely in microbial methane produced in Arctic lake sediments, with non-equilibrium δ18 values spanning a range of more than 5‰.

A model of the daily carbon balance of a black spruce/feathermoss boreal forest ecosystem was developed and results compared to preliminary data from the 1994 BOREAS field campaign in northern Manitoba, Canada. The model, driven by daily weather conditions, simulated daily soil climate status (temperature and moisture profiles), spruce photosynthesis and respiration, moss photosynthesis and respiration, and litter decomposition. Model agreement with preliminary field data was good for net ecosystem exchange (NEE), capturing both the asymmetrical seasonality and short-term variability. During the growing season simulated daily NEE ranged from -4 g C m-2 d-1 (carbon uptake by ecosystem) to + 2 g C m-2 d-1 (carbon flux to atmosphere), with fluctuations from day to day. In the early winter simulated NEE values were + 0.5 g C m-2 d-1, dropping to + 0.2 g C m-2 d-1 in mid-winter. Simulated soil respiration during the growing season (+ 1 to + 5 g C m-2 d-1) was dominated by metabolic respiration of the live moss, with litter decomposition usually contributing less than 30% and live spruce root respiration less than 10% of the total. Both spruce and moss net primary productivity (NPP) rates were higher in early summer than late summer. Simulated annual NEE for 1994 was -51 g C m-2 y-1, with 83% going into tree growth and 17% into the soil carbon accumulation. Moss NPP (58 g C m-2 y-1) was considered to be litter (i.e. soil carbon input; no net increase in live moss biomass). Ecosystem respiration during the snow-covered season (84 g C m-2) was 58% of the growing season net carbon uptake. A simulation of the same site for 1968-1989 showed ≈ 10-20% year-to-year variability in heterotrophic respiration (mean of + 113 g C m-2 y-1). Moss NPP ranged from 19 to 114 g C m-2 y-1; spruce NPP from 81 to 150 g C m-2 y-1; spruce growth (NPP minus litterfall) from 34 to 103 g C m-2 y-1; NEE ranged from +37 to -142 g C m-2 y-1. Values for these carbon balance terms in 1994 were slightly smaller than the 1969-89 means. Higher ecosystem productivity years (more negative NEE) generally had early springs and relatively wet summers; lower productivity years had late springs and relatively dry summers. © 1996 Blackwell Science Ltd.