High carbon emissions from thermokarst lakes and their determinants in the Tibet Plateau

Abstract Thermokarst lakes are potentially important sources of methane (CH 4 ) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). However, considerable uncertainty exists regarding carbon emissions from thermokarst lakes owing to a limited understanding of their patterns and motivators. In this study, we measured CH 4 and CO 2 diffusive fluxes in 163 thermokarst lakes in the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau (QTP) over 3 years from May to October. The median carbon emissions from the QTP thermokarst lakes were 1440 mg CO 2 m −2 day −1 and 60 mg CH 4 m −2 day −1 , respectively. The diffusive rates of CO 2 and CH 4 are related to the catchment land cover type. Sediment microbial abundance and hydrochemistry explain 51.9% and 38.3% of the total variance in CH 4 diffusive emissions, respectively, while CO 2 emissions show no significant relationship with environmental factors. When upscaling carbon emissions from the QTP thermokarst lakes, the annual average CH 4 release per lake area is equal to that of the pan‐Arctic region. Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating in situ observation data with different emission pathways for different land cover types in predicting carbon emissions from thermokarst lakes in the future.