Impact of vegetation on the methane budget of a temperate forest

• Upland forest soils are known to be the main biological sink for methane, but studies have shown that net methane uptake of a forest ecosystem can be reduced when methane emissions by vegetation are considered. We estimated the methane budget of a young oak plantation by considering tree stems but...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The New phytologist 2019-02, Vol.221 (3), p.1447-1456
Main Authors: Plain, Caroline, Ndiaye, Fatou-Kiné, Bonnaud, Pascal, Ranger, Jacques, Epron, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Budgeting
Budgets
Climate
Emissions
Environmental Sciences
Fluxes
Forest ecosystems
forest soil
Forest soils
Forests
Global Changes
Glyceria striata
greenhouse gas
Herbivores
Juncus effusus
Lasers
Methane
Methane - metabolism
methanotrophy
Plant Stems - metabolism
Plantations
Plants - metabolism
Quercus - metabolism
Quercus petraea
Seasons
Soil
Stems
Temperate forests
Terrestrial ecosystems
Trees
Uptake
Vegetation
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Summary:• Upland forest soils are known to be the main biological sink for methane, but studies have shown that net methane uptake of a forest ecosystem can be reduced when methane emissions by vegetation are considered. We estimated the methane budget of a young oak plantation by considering tree stems but also the understorey vegetation. • Automated chambers connected to a laser-based gas analyser, on tree stems, bare soil and soil covered with understorey vegetation, recorded CH₄ fluxes for 7 months at 3 h intervals. • Tree stem emissions were low and equated to only 0.1% of the soil sink. Conversely, the presence of understorey vegetation increased soil methane uptake. This plant-driven enhancement of CH₄ uptake occurred when the soil was consuming methane. At the stand level, the methane budget shifted from −1.4 ± 0.4 kg C ha−1 when we upscaled data obtained only on bare soil, to −2.9 ± 0.6 kg C ha−1 when we considered soil area that was covered with understorey vegetation. • These results indicate that aerenchymatous plant species, which are known to reduce the methane sink in wetlands, actually increase soil methane uptake two-fold in an upland forest by enhancing methane and oxygen transport and/or by promoting growth of methanotrophic populations.
ISSN:0028-646X
1469-8137
DOI:10.1111/nph.15452