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Spatial Patterns in Methane Fluxes of Arctic Vegetation

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Chamber located in a grass field.
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Caption

The custom-built chamber for measuring in situ trace gas fluxes from soil/vegetation and water surfaces. The chamber (~ 0.5 m3) provides adequate height to enclose emergent grasses and reeds.

ABoVE: Methane Flux across Two Thermokarst Lake Ecosystems, Interior Alaska, 2018

This dataset from the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) provides diffusive methane (CH4) fluxes collected from two thermokarst lakes in the Goldstream Valley, north of Fairbanks, in interior Alaska. Fluxes were collected from the littoral zones, adjacent shoreline, and upland vegetation during July 2018. Measurements were made using a mobile, closed chamber technique where chamber air was recirculated through a Cavity Ring-down Spectrometer. The chamber enclosed emergent and upland vegetation up to 1.5 m in height, allowing plant-facilitated fluxes to be measured. These in situ measurements were used to verify spatial patterns in methane flux (i.e., exponential decay with distance from water) detected by NASA's Next Generation Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG).

ABoVE is a NASA Terrestrial Ecology Program field campaign based in Alaska and western Canada between 2016 and 2021. Research for ABoVE links field-based, process-level studies with geospatial data products derived from airborne and satellite sensors, providing a foundation for improving the analysis and modeling capabilities needed to understand and predict ecosystem responses and societal implications. See all ORNL DAAC data from ABoVE.

Data Citation: Elder, C., P. Hanke, K.W. Anthony, D.R. Thompson, C.E. Miller, and A.K. Thorpe. 2020. ABoVE: Methane Flux across Two Thermokarst Lake Ecosystems, Interior Alaska, 2018. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1778