Annual methane emission from Finnish mires estimated from eddy covariance campaign measurements

 Measurements of landscape-scale methane emission were made over an aapa mire near Kaamanen in Finnish Lapland (69° 8′ N, 27° 16′ E, 155 m ASL). Emissions were measured during the spring thaw, in summer and in autumn. No effect of water table position on CH4 emission was found as the water table remained at or above the surface of the peat. Methane emission fluxes increased with surface temperature from which an activation energy of −99 kJ mol−1 was obtained. Annual emission from the site, modelled from temperature regression and short-term flux measurements made in three separate years, was calculated to be 5.5 ± 0.4 g CH4 m−2 y−1 of which 0.6 ± 0.1 g CH4 m−2 y−1 (11%) was released during the spring thaw which lasted 20 to 30 days.