Effects of climate variability on vegetation and carbon uptake in a North-Norwegian coastal wetland

Abstract

Greenhouse gas exchange between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere are an important element of the climate system. Especially boreal and polar wetlands and peatlands may play a crucial role for the future development of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations, because they contain stores of these gases in the same order of magnitude as the current atmospheric load. The aim of this project was to estimate the fluxes of CO2 and CH4 from an oceanic wetland in North‐Norway. Seven years of observations reveal that carbon exchange from this ecosystem is comparable to that of moderate zone coastal wetlands, but distinctly different from alpine and continental wetlands at the same latitude in Sweden and Finland. The seven‐year record of meteorological data reveals that the observed period was significantly warmer (especially during winter) and drier (especially in summer) than the climate reference period 1961‐1990. Carbon fluxes during the growing season are sensitive to both draught, cold spells and soil climate conditions before the onset of the growing season, but the annual Net Ecosystem Exchange is much less variable.