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Rising methane emissions from Finnish lakes due to climate warming and increasing ice-free days
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  • Mingyang Guo,
  • Qianlai Zhuang,
  • Zeli Tan,
  • Narasinha J.f Shurpali,
  • Sari Juutinen,
  • Pirkko Kortelainen,
  • Pertti J Martikainen
Mingyang Guo
Purdue University
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Qianlai Zhuang
Purdue University

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Zeli Tan
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (DOE)
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Narasinha J.f Shurpali
University of Eastern Finland
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Sari Juutinen
University oh Helsinki
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Pirkko Kortelainen
Finnish Environment Institute
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Pertti J Martikainen
University of Eastern Finland
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Abstract

Lakes account for about 10% of the boreal landscape and are responsible for approximately 30% of biogenic methane emissions. However, its quantification is still of large uncertainty under changing climate conditions. Finland has the densest lake system in the world with most lakes situated in the boreal zone. This study uses a large observational dataset of lake methane concentrations to constrain its methane emissions with an extant process-based lake biogeochemical model. We found that the total current diffusive emission from Finnish lakes is 0.12±0.03 Tg CH yr and will increase by 26-59% by the end of this century. We discovered that while warming lake water and sediment temperature played an important role, the climate impact on ice-on periods was a key indicator to the degree of emission increase in the future. We concluded that these boreal lakes remain as a significant methane source under warming climate in this century.