Reconstruction of the carbon balance for microsites in a boreal oligotrophic pine fen, Finland.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange was studied at flark (minerotrophic hollow), lawn and hummock microsites in an oligotrophic boreal pine fen. Statistical response functions were constructed for the microsites in order to reconstruct the annual CO2 exchange balance from climate data. Carbon accumulation was estimated from the annual net CO2 exchange, methane (CH4) emissions and leaching of carbon. Due to high water tables in the year 1993, the average carbon accumulation at the flark, Eriophorum lawn, Carex lawn and hummock microsites was high, 2.91, 6.08, 2.83 and 2.66 mol C m-2, respectively, and for the whole peatland it was 5.66 mol m-2 year-1. During the maximum primary production period in midsummer, hummocks with low water tables emitted less methane than predicted from the average net ecosystem exchange (NEE), while the Carex lawns emitted slightly more. CH4 release during that period corresponded to 16% of the contemporary NEE. Annual C accumulation rate did not correlate with annual CH4 release in the microsites studied, but the total community CO2 release seemed to be related to CH4 emissions in the wet microsites, again excluding the hummocks. The dependence of CO2 exchange dynamics on weather events suggests that daily balances in C accumulation are labile and can change from net carbon uptake to net release, primarily in high hummocks on fens under warmer, drier climatic conditions.