Atmospheric impact of abandoned boreal organic agricultural soils depends on hydrological conditions
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Drained agricultural peat soils are significant sources of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) but also small sinks for methane (CH 4 ).Leaving these soils without any cultivation practice could be an option to mitigate GHG emissions.To test this hypothesis, we measured, over a three year period, net CO 2 exchange and fluxes of CH 4 for five agricultural peat soils that had been abandoned for 20-30 years.Annually, the sites were either small net sinks or sources of CO 2 and CH 4 (-7.8 to 530 g CO 2 -C m -2 and -0.41 to 1.8 g CH 4 m -2 ).Including N 2 O emissions from our previous study, the net (CH 4 + CO 2 + N 2 O) emissions as CO 2 equivalents were lower than in cultivated peat soils and were lowest in the wet year.Therefore, high GHG emissions from these soils could be avoided if the water table is maintained close to the soil surface when photosynthesis is favoured over respiration.
DOI: 10.60910/ywr7-6cgh
Institution: University of Eastern Finland
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Life on land
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2591897876