%0 Research Notes %T Winter carbon losses from a boreal mire succession sequence follow summertime patterns in carbon dynamics %A Leppälä, Mirva %A Laine, Anna M. %A Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina %D 2011 %J Suo - Mires and peat %V 62 %N 1 %U http://suo.fi/article/9874 %X Although carbon (C) gas exchange during the summer largely determines the annual C balance of mires, the wintertime fluxes cannot be ignored. Decomposition continues as long as the soil is not frozen and a proportion of the gases produced during summer are also released during winter. We measured carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes along a successional mire sequence during two winters following growing seasons with divergent weather conditions. We studied the successional trends in wintertime C release in boreal mires, and quantified the contribution of wintertime C fluxes to annual fluxes. Wintertime CO2 and CH4 fluxes from the successional mire sequence were related to the flux rates during the previous summer. Average winter CO2 release along the successional sequence varied between 19.5 and 44.9 g CO2-C m–2 winter–1(6-months), and accounted for 8–14% of the annual CO2 release. There was no clear successional trend in CO2 fluxes. Average winter CH4 release along the successional sequence varied between 0.20 and 7.29 CH4-C g m–2 winter–1(6-months).The winter CH4 fluxes accounted for up to 38% of the annual CH4 emissions. Occasional CH4 uptake was detected at the younger successional stages during winter following the dry summer, while after the wet summer all sites emitted CH4. In general, most of the winter C losses were composed of CO2.