Methane fluxes measured by eddy covariance on Dutch peatlands

Rewetting peatlands is required to limit carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, however, raising the groundwater level (GWL) will strongly increase the chance of methane (CH4) emissions which have a higher radiative forcing than CO2. Datasets of CH4 from different rewetting strategies and natural systems are scarce, and quantification and an understanding of the main drivers of CH4 emissions are needed to make effective peatland rewetting decisions. We present a large dataset of CH4 fluxes (FCH4) measured across 16 sites with eddy covariance on Dutch peatlands. Sites were classified into six land uses, which also determined their vegetation and GWL range. We investigated the principal drivers of emissions and gap-filled the data using machine learning (ML) to derive annual totals. In addition, Shapley values were used to understand the importance of drivers to ML model predictions. The data showed the typical controls of FCH4 where temperature and the GWL were the dominant factors, however, so..., , , # Methane fluxes measured by eddy covariance on Dutch peatlands

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1rn8pk140](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1rn8pk140)

## Description of the data and file structure

Methane fluxes were measured using eddy covariance systems equipped with Licor LI-7700 gas analysers at several sites across peatlands on the Dutch coastal plain. In addition to the CH4 flux data, supporting measurements of energy and CO2 fluxes, meteorology (air temperature, humidity, pressure), soil temperature and water content, groundwater levels, and redox potential are included. The data covers the years 2020 to 2023, however, data length varies per site.

### Files and variables

Files are comma-separated value files (csv) split up by the site ID. Files are provided in half-hourly (hh.zip) and daily timesteps (dd.zip). Half-hourly data contain observed FCH4 fluxes and the gapfilled data. Both baseline- and all-predictor set gapfilled data are provided for sites that were gapfilled. Half-...