Contemporary carbon balance and late Holocene carbon accumulation in a northern peatland

Abstract Northern peatlands contain up to 25% of the world's soil carbon (C) and have an estimated annual exchange of CO 2 ‐C with the atmosphere of 0.1–0.5 Pg yr −1 and of CH 4 ‐C of 10–25 Tg yr −1 . Despite this overall importance to the global C cycle, there have been few, if any, complete multiyear annual C balances for these ecosystems. We report a 6‐year balance computed from continuous net ecosystem CO 2 exchange (NEE), regular instantaneous measurements of methane (CH 4 ) emissions, and export of dissolved organic C (DOC) from a northern ombrotrophic bog. From these observations, we have constructed complete seasonal and annual C balances, examined their seasonal and interannual variability, and…