Carbon-13 (13C) methane from an isotopic labelling experiment in Arctic tundra, Utqiagvik, Alaska, 2019.

An isotopic labeling experiment was conducted in an Arctic coastal wet tundra ecosystem to determine how quickly acetate is transformed into methane and transported from the soil to the atmosphere. Carbon-13 (13C) labelled acetate was injected into soil chambers installed across a 131 meter (m) transect. Gas samples were periodically collected from the headspace in chambers, and analyzed for methane concentration and enrichment in 13C. Methane flux was roughly estimated from the final concentration in the chambers accumulated over a one-hour sampling period. This dataset includes methane fluxes, concentrations and 13C enrichment values from this experiment. In addition, water samples were collected from 15 centimeters (cm) depth after the final time point for measurements of residual dissolved 13C-methane in the soil after 9 days.