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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2936</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Growing-season variability and environmental controls of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; and N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O fluxes across high-latitude terrestrial ecosystems</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Niemi</surname>
<given-names>Johannes Sakari</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1042-3173</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Luoto</surname>
<given-names>Miska Samuli</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6203-5143</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Virkkala</surname>
<given-names>Anna-Maria Ilona</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lehtinen</surname>
<given-names>Johanna Marika</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2350-141X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hultman</surname>
<given-names>Jenni Johanna</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Soil ecosystems, Luke (Natural resources institute), Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Climate research unit, FMI (Finnish Meteorological institute), Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Woodwell Climate Research Center, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>11</day>
<month>06</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>42</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Johannes Sakari Niemi et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2936/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2936/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2936/egusphere-2026-2936.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2936/egusphere-2026-2936.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Rapid warming and accelerating ecological change across high‑latitude (&amp;gt;66&amp;deg; N) terrestrial environments are reshaping greenhouse gas dynamics. However, spatiotemporal patterns and environmental drivers of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; and N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O fluxes in high-latitude ecosystems remain poorly understood.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this study we describe the seasonal and spatial variation in CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; and N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O fluxes across key subarctic and boreal environmental gradients. A secondary aim is to examine the environmental drivers underlying these flux patterns. We measured fluxes during the snow-free season of 2024 and 2025 in northern Finland, starting early June (spring snowmelt) and ending late September (first snowfall). We conducted 1272 chamber measurements at 144 locations spanning eight high-latitude land cover classes: bare tundra, dwarf-shrub tundra, deciduous forest, evergreen forest, fen, bog, permafrost bog and tundra wetland.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Forest and dry tundra sites acted as net CH&lt;sub&gt;4 &lt;/sub&gt;sinks (-0.16 to -0.05 mg m&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;, depending on land cover class) and as both N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O sources and sinks (-0.69 to 1.69 &amp;micro;g m&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;). Wetlands were net CH&lt;sub&gt;4 &lt;/sub&gt;sources (0.93 to 27.81 mg m&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) and net N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O sinks (-0.89 to -6.53 &amp;micro;g m&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;). Highest mean CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; fluxes occurred in fens (23.4 mg m&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) and permafrost bogs (27.8 mg m&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;) which often coincided with substantial N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O sinks (-4.68 &amp;micro;g m&lt;sup&gt;-2&lt;/sup&gt; h&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;). Seasonal trends were present for CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; but were land cover‑dependent, with both sinks and sources typically peaking during July&amp;ndash;August. Land cover class, soil temperature, and soil pH had the strongest effects on CH&lt;sub&gt;4 &lt;/sub&gt;fluxes while variation in N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O was best explained by soil pH and land cover class. However, a significant portion of the variability in N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O remained unexplained.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;These results demonstrate that strong spatial heterogeneity and pronounced seasonal dynamics during the snow‑free period generate substantial variability in CH&lt;sub&gt;4 &lt;/sub&gt;and N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O fluxes across high‑latitude ecosystems. Our findings suggest that monthly measurements of &lt;em&gt;in-situ&lt;/em&gt; gas fluxes and soil conditions in combination with accurate land cover mapping are essential for modelling and upscaling of GHG fluxes. This is especially important in high‑latitude regions, where rapid warming is altering both ecosystem distributions and soil conditions with significant consequences for current and future GHG budgets.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="42"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Koneen Säätiö</funding-source>
<award-id>uinuvat mikrobit</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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