title: Methane emissions by alpine plant communities in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
abstract: For the first time to our knowledge, we report here methane emissions by plant communities in alpine ecosystems in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. This has been achieved through long-term field observations from June 2003 to July 2006 using a closed chamber technique. Strong methane emission at the rate of 26.2+/-1.2 and 7.8+/-1.1microg CH4 m-2h-1 was observed for a grass community in a Kobresia humilis meadow and a Potentilla fruticosa meadow, respectively. A shrub community in the Potentilla meadow consumed atmospheric methane at the rate of 5.8+/-1.3microg CH4 m-2h-1 on a regional basis; plants from alpine meadows contribute at least 0.13Tg CH4 yr-1 in the Tibetan Plateau. This finding has important implications with regard to the regional methane budget and species-level difference should be considered when assessing methane emissions by plants.
authors.affiliation: Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, CAS, 59 Xiguan Dajie, Xining, Qinghai 810001, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guangmin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Xingliang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ruijun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: Qilan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Changting
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yangong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Xinquan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao