Nitrous oxide emission from boreal peatland in the continuous permafrost zone, Northeast China

In the present study, we measured ecosystem N₂O fluxes weekly using manual chambers from June to September 2010 in a permafrost peatland in Northeast China. The fluxes were generally low, ranging from -21.9 to 25.6 μg m^-2 h^-1 (negative flux indicating uptake of N₂O from the atmosphere into the soil) and showed large temporal variation with no clear pattern. The mean N₂O flux during the observation period was -3.9 μg m^-2 h^-1. In addition, N₂O fluxes negatively correlated with the thawing depth, and had no correlation with soil temperature, moisture and water table. Our result indicates that, in Northeast China, boreal peatlands act as a N₂O sink in the snow-free season. This would provide a negative feedback to climate warming in the boreal regions in the future. Due to short observation of N₂O flux, more studies should be conducted to investigate annual fluxes and the factors which controlled the N₂O fluxes.