The influence of soil gas transport properties on methane oxidation in a selection of northern European soils

The oxidation of atmospheric methane in soils was measured in situ at a selection of sites in northern Europe, mainly under forest but also under moorland and agricultural arable land and grassland. Our objective was to examine how land use, soil type, and location affected methane oxidation through their impact on gas diffusivity and air permeability. Gas diffusivity at the soil surface and, in some cases, after removal of any surface organic layer was measured in situ using Freon‐22 tracer in a portable probe. For about half of the sites, gas diffusivity was also measured in intact topsoil core samples in the laboratory using krypton 85. Air permeability and porosity were also measured on these cores. Although the method of measurement of CH4 oxidation varied between sites, the same techniques were used to measure soil physical properties at all sites. CH4 oxidation rates ranged from 0 to 2.5 mg m−2 d−1. Diffusivity also covered a very wide range, being lowest in loam cores from wet grassland in Norway and highest in relatively dry, sandy soils in Denmark and Scotland. CH4 oxidation tended to increase with gas diffusivity measured in situ at the soil surface, though the relationship was poor at high diffusivities, presumably because CH4 oxidation was not limited by diffusion. Removal of the surface organic layer reduced in situ diffusivity at the surface and improved its relationship with CH4 oxidation rate. Sites where soils had well‐developed structure and a loose and permeable organic layer at the surface tended to have the highest CH4 oxidation rates. Core measurements, particularly of air permeability, could not be obtained at some sites owing to the inability to take suitable samples. Diffusivity measured in cores generally decreased with increasing depth of sampling in the topsoil, with the 50‐to 100‐mm depth giving the best correlation with CH4 uptake; cores from within this layer also gave the highest CH4 oxidation during laboratory incubation. Effective comparisons between sites were hampered by the differing responses of CH4 oxidation and diffusivity to soil properties. However, multivariate cluster analysis that included the above transport variables plus others relevant to CH4 oxidation (namely, soil texture; bulk density; airfilled porosity; pH; carbon, nitrogen, and water contents; presence and depth of organic layers; and N deposition) confirmed the importance of soil water content, structure and texture in distinguishing different soil a