Very large fluxes of methane measured above Bolivian seasonal wetlands
James L. France, Mark F. Lunt, Marcos Andrade, Isabel Moreno, Anita L. Ganesan, Tom Lachlan‐Cope, Rebecca Fisher, David Lowry, Robert J. Parker, Euan G. Nisbet, A. E. Jones
Abstract
Methane (CH 4 ) mole fractions from the large semiseasonal Llanos de Moxos wetlands (∼70,000 km 2 ) in northern Bolivia were measured by aircraft flights and ground sampling during early March 2019 (late wet season). Daily fluxes of CH 4 determined from the measurements using box models and inverse modeling were between 168 (± 50) and 456 (± 145) mg CH 4 ⋅m −2 ⋅d −1 for the areas overflown, very high compared with those of previous Amazon basin studies. If the seasonality of the CH 4 emissions is comparable to other parts of the Amazon Basin, the region could contribute as much as 8% of annual Amazonian CH 4 emissions.