Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 7 1 2010 10.5194/bg-7-95-2010 http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/95/2010/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/95/2010/bg-7-95-2010.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/95/2010/bg-7-95-2010.pdf 95 108 2010-01-11 Annual carbon gas budget for a subarctic peatland, Northern Sweden K. Bäckstrand kristina.backstrand@gmail.com P. M. Crill M. Jackowicz-Korczyñski M. Mastepanov T. R. Christensen D. Bastviken Department of Geology and Geochemistry, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden GeoBiosphere Science Centre, Physical Geography and Ecosystem Analysis, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62 Lund, Sweden Temperatures in the Arctic regions are rising, thawing permafrost and exposing previously stable soil organic carbon (OC) to decomposition. This can result in northern latitude soils, which have accumulated large amounts of OC potentially shifting from atmospheric C sinks to C sources with positive feedback on climate warming. In this paper, we estimate the annual net C gas balance (NCB) of the subarctic mire Stordalen, based on automatic chamber measurements of CO₂ and total hydrocarbon (THC; CH₄ and NMVOCs) exchange. We studied the dominant vegetation communities with different moisture and permafrost characteristics; a dry Palsa underlain by permafrost, an intermediate thaw site with <i>Sphagnum</i> spp. and a wet site with <i>Eriophorum</i> spp. where the soil thaws completely. Whole year accumulated fluxes of CO₂ were estimated to 29.7, &minus;35.3 and &minus;34.9 gC m^&minus;2 respectively for the Palsa, <i>Sphagnum</i> and <i>Eriophorum</i> sites (positive flux indicates an addition of C to the atmospheric pool). The corresponding annual THC emissions were 0.5, 6.2 and 31.8 gC m^&minus;2 for the same sites. Therefore, the NCB for each of the sites was 30.2, &minus;29.1 and &minus;3.1 gC m^&minus;2 respectively for the Palsa, <i>Sphagnum</i> and <i>Eriophorum</i> site. 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