A shortage of certified methane gas has exposed a six-year gap in Baltic peatland measurements, with preliminary re-tests finding that readings from six monitoring sites were off by as much as 31%. The figures fed into decisions on €14 million (about $15.6 million) in restoration grants, according to the regional programme that funded the work.
The shortage began on 11 September, when a scheduled delivery of 37 calibration cylinders failed to arrive at the Baltic Peat Monitor’s laboratory in Tartu, Estonia. Researchers opened reserve cylinders and found that several did not match their printed certificates, prompting checks of equipment used at 23 sites in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The missing cylinders
The network measures methane released from peatlands, where waterlogged soil stores large amounts of carbon but can also emit the heat-trapping gas. Researchers use certified gas mixtures to check that their analysers are reading accurately; without them, the Tartu laboratory has paused routine measurements and sent samples to a second facility.
A comparison completed last week found that 17 of 23 cylinders examined contained less methane than their labels specified. Recalculation of six sites’ archived measurements showed that several had undercounted emissions by 18% to 31%, said Alvar Alexs, a measurement specialist who led the checks. The other sites remain under review.
The data helped guide grants for projects across 310,000 hectares (766,000 acres) of drained or partly restored peatland. The programme used the readings to estimate how quickly restored bogs would reduce their net climate impact; officials say they have not yet established whether any payment would have changed if the corrected figures had been available.
“We were measuring with a ruler that had quietly changed length, and nobody had a spare ruler left to check it,” said Alexs.
Grants and unanswered checks
The results do not show that restoration work failed, said Prudence Homenick, an environmental auditor appointed by the programme. They do mean its reported methane reductions may be unreliable at the six affected sites. Homenick said her team would compare the original field logs with instrument settings and payment calculations before deciding whether grant awards need to be reviewed.
The cylinders came from NordGauge Calibration, a fictional supplier based in the region whose regular deliveries had served all three Baltic countries. Douglas E. Sam, the company’s operations director, said the delayed shipment followed a production interruption and that its own checks had found “no evidence of a deliberate change to any certificate”. The company is examining retained cylinders and said it would share test results with the laboratories.
The Baltic Peat Monitor says it will replace its shared calibration stock with separately certified mixtures and publish corrected readings site by site. The programme’s science director, Ian Verduzco-Portillo, said a first revised dataset was due by 30 November; until then, the six sites’ figures will be marked provisional.
Local researchers say the shortage has also exposed how little spare capacity the region had: one supplier served the network, and no reserve shipment was available when its delivery stopped. The grant programme has frozen new awards that rely on the disputed measurements, but existing restoration projects will continue while the audit checks what the data can still support.
