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The effect of sampling effort on estimates of methane ebullition from peat
Author(s) -
Ramirez Jorge A.,
Baird Andy J.,
Coulthard Tom J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1002/2017wr020428
Subject(s) - peat , sampling (signal processing) , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , methane , soil science , spatial variability , hydrology (agriculture) , atmospheric sciences , field (mathematics) , geology , statistics , chemistry , ecology , mathematics , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , filter (signal processing) , computer science , computer vision , pure mathematics , biology
We investigated the effect of sample size and sampling duration on methane bubble flux (ebullition) estimates from peat using a computer model. A field scale (10 m), seasonal (>100 days) simulation of ebullition from a two‐dimensional (2‐D) structurally varying peat profile was modeled at fine spatial resolution (1 mm × 1 mm). The spatial and temporal scale of this simulation was possible because of the computational efficiency of the reduced‐complexity approach that was implemented, and patterns of simulated ebullition were consistent with those found in the field and laboratory. The simulated ebullition from the peat profile suggested that decreases in peat porosity—which cause increases in gas storage—produce ebullition that becomes increasingly patchy in space and erratic in time. By applying different amounts of spatial and temporal sampling effort, it was possible to determine the uncertainty in ebullition estimates from the peatland. The results suggest that traditional methods to measure ebullition can equally overestimate and underestimate flux by 20% and large ebullition events can lead to large overestimations of flux when sampling effort is low. Our findings support those of field studies, and we recommend that ebullition should be measured frequently (hourly to daily) and at many locations ( n > 14).