Fossil mosses are emitting methane after maritime Antarctic glacier retreat

Svetlana Y Evgrafova; Bulat R Mavlyudov; Pavel V Chukmasov; Antonina A Chetverova; Oxana V Masyagina

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115959

Fossil mosses are emitting methane after maritime Antarctic glacier retreat

Mar Pollut Bull. 2024 Feb:199:115959. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115959. Epub 2023 Dec 27.

Authors

Svetlana Y Evgrafova¹, Bulat R Mavlyudov², Pavel V Chukmasov³, Antonina A Chetverova⁴, Oxana V Masyagina⁵

Affiliations

¹ Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS", 50/28 Akademgorodok st., 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation; Siberian Federal University, 660041 Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation; Melnikov Permafrost Institute of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 677010 Yakutsk, Russian Federation.
² Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetnyy Pereulok, 29, Moscow 119017, Russian Federation.
³ Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119071, Russian Federation.
⁴ St. Petersburg University, St. Petersburg 199034, Russian Federation; Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg 199397, Russian Federation.
⁵ Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Federal Research Center "Krasnoyarsk Science Center SB RAS", 50/28 Akademgorodok st., 660036 Krasnoyarsk, Russian Federation. Electronic address: oxanamas@mail.ru.

PMID: 38154169
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115959

Abstract

In the extraordinary weather conditions of the austral summer of 2023, fossil mosses thawed out from under the Bellingshausen Ice Dome, King George Island, Southern Shetland Archipelago of maritime Antarctica. At the end of the austral summer, we directly measured greenhouse gas fluxes (CH₄ and CO₂) from the surface of fossil mosses. We showed that fossil mosses were strong emitters of CH₄ and weak emitters of CO₂. The real-time measured CH₄ emissions reached 0.173 μmol m^-2 s^-1, which is comparable to CH₄ efflux in water bodies or wet tundra in the Arctic.

Keywords: Antarctica; CH(4); CO(2); Fossil mosses; Glacier; Water isotopes.

MeSH terms

Antarctic Regions
Bryophyta*
Carbon Dioxide / analysis
Fossils
Ice Cover
Methane*

Substances

Methane
Carbon Dioxide