https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-020-04605-y
The Primary Drivers of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Along
the Water Table Gradient in the Zoige Alpine Peatland
Wantong Zhang · Jinzhi Wang · Zhengyi Hu · Yong Li · Zhongqing Yan ·
Xiaodong Zhang · Haidong Wu · Liang Yan · Kerou Zhang · Xiaoming Kang
Received: 3 January 2020 / Accepted: 15 April 2020
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Zoige alpine peatland as the highest and
largest peat swamp area in the world plays an impor-
tant role in regulating global climate change and
stabilizing GHG emissions, and GHG emissions are
getting more and more concern due to water table
decline induced by the combined effects of climate
warming and digging ditches in Zoige alpine peat-
land. Therefore, emissions of CH
4
, CO
2
, and N
2
O
were investigated in situ along different water table
transects in Zoige peatland. Results showed that the
CO
2
and N
2
O fluxes increased along the reduced
water table gradient except the lowest water table sites,
while CH
4
flux was decreased. Meanwhile, the global
warming potential decreased from 798.6 to 430.9 g
Wantong Zhang and Jinzhi Wang contributed equally to this
work.
W. Zhang · J. Wang · Y. Li · Z. Yan · X. Zhang · H. Wu ·
L. Yan · K. Zhang · X. Kang ()
Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy
of Forestry, Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services
and Restoration, Beijing 100091, China
e-mail: xmkang@ucas.ac.cn
W. Zhang · Z. Hu
Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy
of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
J. Wang · Y. Li · Z. Yan · X. Zhang · H. Wu · L. Yan ·
K. Zhang · X. Kang
Sichuan Zoige Wetland Ecosystem Research Station,
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Aba 624500, China
CO
2
eq m
−2
h
−1
with the declined water table. Step-
wise multiple regression analysis demonstrated that
SOC was the primary factor explaining the variations
of CO
2
and N
2
O fluxes across different water table
levels, and soil water content was the most important
factor to explain the CH
4
flux. Water table was the
primary driver to determine the GHG fluxes, and the
CO
2
and N
2
O emissions were also dependent on the
SOC variations. Overall, our results would be benefi-
cial to understand the mechanism of water table effect
on GHG emission in alpine peatland ecosystem and
provide supports for alpine peatland management in
the future.
Keywords Greenhouse gases · Water table ·
Alpine peatland · Zoige · Global warming potential
1 Introduction
Peatlands, containing one-third global soil organic
carbon, have been confirmed to play important roles
in the global carbon cycles. The total carbon storage
of peatlands in the world was estimated to be 400–
500 Gt (Yu et al. 2010). Peatlands accumulate carbon
and function as carbon sinks as a result of water
logging under anaerobic conditions and low temper-
ature (Dorrepaal et al. 2009). This large, long-term
carbon pool was also considered the essential contrib-
utor to the global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
especially for CO
2
and CH
4
(Tiemeyer et al. 2016).
Water, Air and Soil Pollution (2020) 231: 224
/ Published online: 5 May 2020