Methane emissions from high elevation peatlands in the colombian andes

Methane is the second most important anthropogenic GHG both in terms of global warming potential and global climatic impacts. There is an observed increase of the atmospheric concentration of CH4 since 2007. The magnitude of CH4 fluxes either from sources or sinks is characterized by large uncertain...

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Autores:: Rocha Cárdenas, David Santiago

Tipo de recurso:: Trabajo de grado de pregrado

Fecha de publicación:: 2021

Institución:: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Repositorio:: Repositorio Universidad Javeriana

Idioma:: spa

Description
Summary:	Methane is the second most important anthropogenic GHG both in terms of global warming potential and global climatic impacts. There is an observed increase of the atmospheric concentration of CH4 since 2007. The magnitude of CH4 fluxes either from sources or sinks is characterized by large uncertainties, the tropical regions have the largest uncertainties and largest emissions, and tropical wetlands seem to be responsible for the largest uncertainty from all the CH4 emissions sources. Here, I quantified for first time methane emissions from 4 high elevation peatlands in the tropical wet Andes over a 5-year period, I also examined the environmental conditions affecting methane emissions as water table level, air and soil temperature and vegetation on the 4 sites. I found that in overall the peatlands act as sources of CH4 (206.78 ± 415 μg CH4 m-2h- 1) when the peatlands are dry out and in less magnitude as sinks (-160.97 ± 209 μg CH4 m-2h-1) Dryer sites act as a source of CH4 (5.80 ± 14 μg CH4 m-2h-1). A heavily disturbed peatland at the Calostros site has the largest uptake, and this is in part due to the variations in the hydrological status (water table depth) the lowest emission was at a cushion plant dominated peatland at high elevation (4.200 m.a.s.l.). I found that the main factor influencing the response of CH4 fluxes is the depth of the water table. Our preliminary dataset provides insights into the magnitude of methane emissions from neotropical ecosystems of the Colombian paramo and its relevance on the national GHG inventories.Methane is the second most important anthropogenic GHG both in terms of global warming potential and global climatic impacts. There is an observed increase of the atmospheric concentration of CH4 since 2007. The magnitude of CH4 fluxes either from sources or sinks is characterized by large uncertainties, the tropical regions have the largest uncertainties and largest emissions, and tropical wetlands seem to be responsible for the largest uncertainty from all the CH4 emissions sources. Here, I quantified for first time methane emissions from 4 high elevation peatlands in the tropical wet Andes over a 5-year period, I also examined the environmental conditions affecting methane emissions as water table level, air and soil temperature and vegetation on the 4 sites. I found that in overall the peatlands act as sources of CH4 (206.78 ± 415 μg CH4 m-2h- 1) when the peatlands are dry out and in less magnitude as sinks (-160.97 ± 209 μg CH4 m-2h-1) Dryer sites act as a source of CH4 (5.80 ± 14 μg CH4 m-2h-1). A heavily disturbed peatland at the Calostros site has the largest uptake, and this is in part due to the variations in the hydrological status (water table depth) the lowest emission was at a cushion plant dominated peatland at high elevation (4.200 m.a.s.l.). I found that the main factor influencing the response of CH4 fluxes is the depth of the water table. Our preliminary dataset provides insights into the magnitude of methane emissions from neotropical ecosystems of the Colombian paramo and its relevance on the national GHG inventories.

Methane emissions from high elevation peatlands in the colombian andes

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