Methane Sources and Sinks of Various Land Use Types in Mae chaem Watershed

Abstract

Eleven land use types in Mae Chaem watershed were selected and systematically monitored for their methane production and consumption during 1999. Methane concentration was analyzed using Gas Chromatoraphy (GC) to analyze gas sample taken from each land use and methane emission was ultimately calculated. Base on source/sink consideration, the selected land uses can be grouped into two categories, methane sink. the first category is included two rice fields with average emission and consumption rates of 0.144 and 68.930 mg m2 d-1, respectively. The second category consists of fallow fields, a field crop area, deciduous forests, an orchard field, a hill evergreen forest, and a pine forest, with average consumption rates of 0.517 , 02.40 , 0.236 0.234 , 0.209, and 0.161 mg m-2 d-1, . Moreover, the study found a highly significant negative rllationship between soil bulk density and methane consumption rate.