ABCFlux v2: Arctic–boreal CO 2 and CH 4 monthly flux observations and ancillary information across terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems
40 affiliations
- 1Woodwell Climate Research Center (Falmouth, United States of America)
- 2Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, USA
- 3Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
- 4Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- 5Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
- 6Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- 7Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ, USA
- 8Department of Thematic Studies-Environmental Change, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
- 9Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 10Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, USA
- 11Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- 12Department of Geography, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada
- 13NORCE Norwegian Research Centre and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
- 14Water and Environmental Research Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA
- 15University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
- 16Finnish Meteorological Institute, Climate System Research, Helsinki, Finland
- 17Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India
- 18Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, 1030 Vienna, Austria
- 19WasserCluster Lunz, Biologische Station, Dr. Carl Kupelwieser Promenade 5, 3293 Lunz am See, Austria
- 20Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
- 21Laboratoire d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France
- 22Institute of Geography and Geoecology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
- 23Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
- 24Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
- 25Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 463, 40530 Gothenburg, Sweden
- 26Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 463, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
- 27Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- 28Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
- 29Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
- 30Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany
- 31Humboldt University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- 32Centre d'études nordiques (CEN), Université Laval, Québec, Canada
- 33Department of Applied Geomatics, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada
- 34Department Shelf Sea System Ecology, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helgoland, Germany
- 35Aix-Marseille University, University Toulon, CNRS, IRD, Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (M.I.O.), Marseille, France
- 36Millennium Institute Biodiversity of Antarctic and Subantarctic Ecosystems (BASE), Santiago, 7800003, Chile
- 37CMCC Foundation – Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Lecce, Italy
- 38School of Earth, Environment and Society, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- 39Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- 40Institute of Life Science and Natural Resources, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Abstract
Measurements of surface-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes have been relatively sparse across the Arctic tundra and boreal biomes, causing significant uncertainties in carbon budget estimates from the region. While the availability of Arctic-boreal carbon flux data has increased substantially over the past decade, the data have remained spread across different repositories, scientific articles, and unpublished sources, making it difficult to leverage. Here we present a new dataset of monthly Arctic-boreal carbon fluxes (ABCFlux v2) across terrestrial (wetlands and uplands) and freshwater (lakes and rivers) ecosystems compiled from previous syntheses including the Arctic-boreal CO2 flux database (ABCFlux v1), the Boreal-Arctic Wetland and Lake Methane Dataset (BAWLD-CH4), and the Global River Methane Database (GRiMeDB). In addition, we consider data from general-purpose (e.g., Zenodo) and flux network repositories, literature, and site principal investigators. The dataset includes surface-atmosphere CO2 fluxes of gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (Reco), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE), alongside CH4 fluxes. For aquatic ecosystems, we split CH4 fluxes into diffusive and ebullitive flux pathways, and included potential emissions from transient storage in the water column (“storage fluxes”), alongside CO2 and CH4 concentrations dissolved in the surface water. Fluxes are measured through a variety of methods including chamber and eddy covariance techniques alongside bubble traps, ice-surveys, and concentration-based turbulence-driven modelling in aquatic ecosystems. The monthly flux data are reported together with supporting methodological and environmental metadata. The resulting ABCFlux v2 has 23,656 flux site-months, 8,182 concentration site-months, and 199 seasonal observations from 1,024 sites, and includes 55,560 reported fluxes (i.e. sum of GPP, Reco, NEE, and CH4 fluxes) from the years 1984 to 2024. The majority of monthly observations occurred after 1999. Wetlands had the highest number of site-month observations (8,641), followed by boreal forest (6,981), lotic ecosystems (6,275), lentic ecosystems (3,725) and upland tundra (3,308). Measurements of CO2 dominated the dataset across most ecosystem types (25,101) except for lentic ecosystems, where CH4 flux site-months (3,024) were more frequent than CO2 flux site-months (2,858). Overall, ABCFlux v2 includes 158 % more site-months for terrestrial CO2 flux data compared to ABCFlux v1. Integrating and updating BAWLD-CH4 flux data from growing season averages to monthly fluxes resulted in 5,671 site-months of chamber CH4 data compared to 762 site-years. This collaborative initiative, involving contributions from over 260 researchers, provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the Arctic-boreal carbon flux network and its data, and serves as an important step in reducing uncertainties in Arctic-boreal carbon budgets and in enhancing our understanding of climate feedbacks. The data can be accessed at ORNL DAAC at https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2448 (Virkkala et al., 2025b).
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BibTeX
@article{virkkala2026abcflux,
title = {{ABCFlux v2: Arctic–boreal CO 2 and CH 4 monthly flux observations and ancillary information across terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems}},
author = {Anna‐Maria Virkkala and Isabel K. Wargowsky and Judith Vogt and McKenzie A. Kuhn and Simran Madaan and Tiffany Windholz and Kyle A. Arndt and Gerard Rocher‐Ros and Mathias Goeckede and David Olefeldt and Edward A. G. Schuur and David Bastviken and Richard O'Keefe and Brendan M. Rogers and Jennifer D. Watts and Kelcy Kent and Kristoffer Aalstad and Kelly Sue Aho and Joonatan Ala-Könni and Haley Alcock and Inge Althuizen and Christopher D. Arp and Jun Asanuma and Mika Aurela and Balathandayuthabani Panneer Selvam and Katrin Attermeyer and Alan Barr and Maialen Barret and Ochirbat Batkhishig and Christina Biasi and Mats P. Björkman and T. Andrew Black and Elena Blanc‐Betes and Pascal Bodmer and Julia Boike and Abdullah Bolek and Frédéric Bouchard and Ingeborg Bussmann and Léa Cabrol and Eleonora Canfora and Sean K. Carey and Karel Castro‐Morales and Namyi Chae and Andreas Christen and Torben R. Christensen and Casper Tai Christiansen and Housen Chu and Graham Clark and François Clayer and Patrick Crill and Christopher Cunada and Scott J. Davidson and Joshua F. Dean and Sigrid Dengel and Matteo Detto and Catherine M. Dieleman and Florent Dominé and Egor Dyukarev and Colin W. Edgar and Bo Elberling},
journal = {Earth system science data},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.5194/essd-18-6357-2026},
url = {https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6357-2026},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - ABCFlux v2: Arctic–boreal CO 2 and CH 4 monthly flux observations and ancillary information across terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems
AU - Anna‐Maria Virkkala
AU - Isabel K. Wargowsky
AU - Judith Vogt
AU - McKenzie A. Kuhn
AU - Simran Madaan
AU - Tiffany Windholz
AU - Kyle A. Arndt
AU - Gerard Rocher‐Ros
AU - Mathias Goeckede
AU - David Olefeldt
AU - Edward A. G. Schuur
AU - David Bastviken
AU - Richard O'Keefe
AU - Brendan M. Rogers
AU - Jennifer D. Watts
AU - Kelcy Kent
AU - Kristoffer Aalstad
AU - Kelly Sue Aho
AU - Joonatan Ala-Könni
AU - Haley Alcock
AU - Inge Althuizen
AU - Christopher D. Arp
AU - Jun Asanuma
AU - Mika Aurela
AU - Balathandayuthabani Panneer Selvam
AU - Katrin Attermeyer
AU - Alan Barr
AU - Maialen Barret
AU - Ochirbat Batkhishig
AU - Christina Biasi
AU - Mats P. Björkman
AU - T. Andrew Black
AU - Elena Blanc‐Betes
AU - Pascal Bodmer
AU - Julia Boike
AU - Abdullah Bolek
AU - Frédéric Bouchard
AU - Ingeborg Bussmann
AU - Léa Cabrol
AU - Eleonora Canfora
AU - Sean K. Carey
AU - Karel Castro‐Morales
AU - Namyi Chae
AU - Andreas Christen
AU - Torben R. Christensen
AU - Casper Tai Christiansen
AU - Housen Chu
AU - Graham Clark
AU - François Clayer
AU - Patrick Crill
AU - Christopher Cunada
AU - Scott J. Davidson
AU - Joshua F. Dean
AU - Sigrid Dengel
AU - Matteo Detto
AU - Catherine M. Dieleman
AU - Florent Dominé
AU - Egor Dyukarev
AU - Colin W. Edgar
AU - Bo Elberling
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/03
JO - Earth system science data
DO - 10.5194/essd-18-6357-2026
UR - https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-6357-2026
AB - Measurements of surface-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes have been relatively sparse across the Arctic tundra and boreal biomes, causing significant uncertainties in carbon budget estimates from the region. While the availability of Arctic-boreal carbon flux data has increased substantially over the past decade, the data have remained spread across different repositories, scientific articles, and unpublished sources, making it difficult to leverage. Here we present a new dataset of monthly Arctic-boreal carbon fluxes (ABCFlux v2) across terrestrial (wetlands and uplands) and freshwater (lakes and rivers) ecosystems compiled from previous syntheses including the Arctic-boreal CO2 flux database (ABCFlux v1), the Boreal-Arctic Wetland and Lake Methane Dataset (BAWLD-CH4), and the Global River Methane Database (GRiMeDB). In addition, we consider data from general-purpose (e.g., Zenodo) and flux network repositories, literature, and site principal investigators. The dataset includes surface-atmosphere CO2 fluxes of gross primary production (GPP), ecosystem respiration (Reco), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE), alongside CH4 fluxes. For aquatic ecosystems, we split CH4 fluxes into diffusive and ebullitive flux pathways, and included potential emissions from transient storage in the water column (“storage fluxes”), alongside CO2 and CH4 concentrations dissolved in the surface water. Fluxes are measured through a variety of methods including chamber and eddy covariance techniques alongside bubble traps, ice-surveys, and concentration-based turbulence-driven modelling in aquatic ecosystems. The monthly flux data are reported together with supporting methodological and environmental metadata. The resulting ABCFlux v2 has 23,656 flux site-months, 8,182 concentration site-months, and 199 seasonal observations from 1,024 sites, and includes 55,560 reported fluxes (i.e. sum of GPP, Reco, NEE, and CH4 fluxes) from the years 1984 to 2024. The majority of monthly observations occurred after 1999. Wetlands had the highest number of site-month observations (8,641), followed by boreal forest (6,981), lotic ecosystems (6,275), lentic ecosystems (3,725) and upland tundra (3,308). Measurements of CO2 dominated the dataset across most ecosystem types (25,101) except for lentic ecosystems, where CH4 flux site-months (3,024) were more frequent than CO2 flux site-months (2,858). Overall, ABCFlux v2 includes 158 % more site-months for terrestrial CO2 flux data compared to ABCFlux v1. Integrating and updating BAWLD-CH4 flux data from growing season averages to monthly fluxes resulted in 5,671 site-months of chamber CH4 data compared to 762 site-years. This collaborative initiative, involving contributions from over 260 researchers, provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the Arctic-boreal carbon flux network and its data, and serves as an important step in reducing uncertainties in Arctic-boreal carbon budgets and in enhancing our understanding of climate feedbacks. The data can be accessed at ORNL DAAC at https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/2448 (Virkkala et al., 2025b).
SN - 1866-3508
SN - 1866-3516
ER -