Remotely Sensed Land Surface Temperature Can Be Used to Estimate Ecosystem Respiration in Intact and Disturbed Northern Peatlands

Remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) enables global modeling and monitoring of CO2 fluxes from peatlands. We aimed to provide the first overview of the potential for using LST to monitor ecosystem respiration (R-eco) in disturbed (drained and extracted) peatlands. We used chamber-measured data (2017-2020) from five disturbed and two intact northern peatlands and LST data from Landsat 7, 8, and MODIS missions. First, we studied the strength of the relationships between fluxes and their in situ drivers (i.e., thermal and moisture conditions). Second, we examined the association between LST and in situ temperatures. Third, we compared chamber-measured R-eco with the modeled R-eco driven by in situ measured water table depth and (a) in situ measured surface temperature and (b) remotely sensed MODIS LST data. In situ temperatures were a stronger driver of CO2 fluxes in disturbed sites (repeated measures correlation rmR = 0.8-0.9) than in intact ones (rmR = 0.5-0.8). LST had a higher association with in situ measured temperatures in disturbed sites (mean rmR = 0.79 for MODIS) and weaker in the intact (hummocks and hollows) peatlands (mean rmR = 0.38 for Landsat and 0.48 for MODIS). R-eco models driven by MODIS LST and in situ surface temperature yielded similar accuracy: R-2 was 0.27, 0.66, and 0.67 and 0.29, 0.70, and 0.66 for intact and for drained and extracted sites, respectively. Overall, these findings suggest the applicability of LST as a proxy of the thermal regime in R-eco models, particularly for disturbed peatlands.

Automated summary

This study explored the potential of using remotely sensed land surface temperature (LST) to monitor ecosystem respiration (R-eco) in disturbed peatlands, finding that in disturbed sites, in situ temperatures were a stronger driver of CO2 fluxes and LST had a higher association with in situ measured temperatures.