Glagolev M.V.1), 2), 3), Filippov I.V.3)
1) Lomonosov Moscow state university
2) Institute of Forest Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow district
3) Yugra state university, Khanty-Mansiysk
m_glagolev@mail.ru
On the basis of the various rates measured for a wide variety of soils, global soil methane oxidation ranges between 5 and 60 Tg/year. These values are approximately 1 to 10% of the current estimates for net methane flux to the atmosphere [Dörr et al., 1993].
Methane uptake by soils is an appropriate process to model globally because the probable controls are simple relative to many other microbially mediated soil processes of trace gas production and consumption [Potter et al., 1996]. Potential microbial decomposition rate, vegetation cover, soil temperature, organic matter content, pH [Born et al., 1990; Dörr et al., 1993] as well as latitude, annual mean rainfall, and annual mean temperature [Dutaur and Verchot, 2007] are found to be of minor influence on the methane flux from the atmosphere into the soil.
Principal methods of gas flux upscaling such as simplest inventory, using of mathematical models and inverse modelling are described in this study by an example of methane uptake by soils. Different implementations of simplest inventory approach as CH4 uptake estimation in soils of various bioms and/or structure are considered.
Methane consumption in aerated soils is mainly controlled by the gas transport resistance within the soil as it was found by Born et al. [1990] and Dörr et al. [1993]. However this assertion is seemed to be correct only for similar bioms or at local areas. The inventory of Dutaur and Verchot [2007] showed that ecosystem type, geographic zone, and soil texture strongly control CH4 uptake. The ecosystem type accounted for the largest part of the variation in the global data set while established uptake estimation approach based on our knowledges about soil structure is proved to be statistically unreliable at significance level 0.05 (usually used in biometric and pedometric studies).
At the final section simplest inventory approach applied to the methane uptake by Russian soils is discussed. It was shown that consumption estimations obtained for Russian soils vary considerably according to the different studies. This heterogeneity indicates significant gaps in our knowledge of methane emission and consumption in Russian soils and necessity of the future research. Probable methane uptake by Russian soils similar to other estimations can be accepted as 3.6 Мt/yr.
The authors acknowledge the financial support by the European Union FP7-ENVIRONMENT project PAGE21 under contract no. GA282700.
Key words: methane, Russian soils, methane consumption by soils.
Citation: Glagolev M.V., Filippov I.V. 2011. Inventory of soil methane consumption // Environmental Dynamics and Global Climate Change. V. 2. № 2(4). EDССrev0002.