Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2019-116 Manuscript under review for journal Biogeosciences Discussion started: 23 April 2019 c Author(s) 2019. CC BY 4.0 License. The ratio of methanogens to methanotrophs and water-level dynamics drive methane exchange velocity in a temperate kettle-hole peat bog Camilo Rey-Sanchez1,4, Gil Bohrer1, Julie Slater2, Yueh-Fen Li3, Roger Grau-Andrés2, Yushan Hao2, 5 Virginia I. Rich3, & G. Matt Davies2 1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA 2School of Environment and Natural Resources, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA 3Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, USA 10 4Current address, Department of Environmental Science, Management and Policy, University of California- Berkeley, California, 94720, USA Correspondence to: Camilo Rey-Sanchez (
[email protected]) 15 Abstract. Peatlands are a large source of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere, yet the uncertainty around the estimates of CH4 flux from peatlands is large. To better understand the spatial heterogeneity in temperate peatland CH4 emissions and their response to physical and biological drivers, we studied CH4 dynamics throughout the growing seasons of 2017 and 2018 in Flatiron Lake Bog, a kettle-hole peat bog in Ohio. The site is composed of six different hydro-biological zones: an open water zone, four concentric vegetation zones surrounding the open water, and a restored zone connected to the main bog by a narrow 20 channel. At each of these locations, we monitored water level (WL), CH4 pore-water concentration at different peat depths, CH4 fluxes from the ground and from representative plant species using chambers, and microbial community composition with focus here on known methanogens and methanotrophs.