A Multi-Year Record of Methane Flux at the Mer Bleue Bog, Southern

The Mer Bleue peatland is a large ombrotrophic bog with hummock-lawn microtopography, poor fen sections and beaver ponds at the margin. Average growing-season (May–October) fluxes of methane (CH4) measured in 2002–2003 across the bog ranged from less than 5 mg m-2 d-1 in hum-mocks, to greater than 100 mg m-2 d-1 in lawns and ponds. The average position of the water table explained about half of the variation in the season average CH4 fluxes, similar to that observed in many other peatlands in Canada and elsewhere. The flux varied most when the water table position ranged between-15 and-40 cm. To better establish the factors that influence this variability