Evaluation of peat layer thickness effect on soil GHG fluxes
2023
Purvina, Dana | Licite, Ieva | Butlers, Aldis | Lazdins, Andis | Saule, Guntis | Turks, Andris | Prysiazhniuk, Larysa
Organic soils are the largest source of GHG emissions in Latvia producing the amount of emissions comparable with the whole energy sector. Organic soils in cropland and grassland alone release about 4.5 mill. tonnes of CO2 eq. annually, which is nearly twice as big as the total emissions from the agriculture sector in Latvia. The reduction of the emissions from the organic soils is the primary target to implement the climate neutrality target in the post-2050 period in LULUCF sector. One of the issues in reporting of GHG emissions from organic soils is different definitions of organic soils, e.g. Latvia is using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) definition (at least 10 cm deep peat layer and at least 12% of carbon content in upper 20 cm of the topsoil), while other countries use different criteria, e.g., at least 30 cm or 40 cm deep peat layer. The scope of this study is evaluating the effect of the peat layer thickness on GHG fluxes in grasslands. The study results proved that increase of the peat layer depth is associated with a trend of increase of CO2 and CH4 emissions. There is also strong correlation between CH4 emissions and the groundwater depth and soil temperature and CO2 emissions. N2O emissions are correlating with nitrogen content in soil. In the study sites soil turns into net source of CH4 emissions if the depth of peat layer exceeds 40 cm. The study results point that the peat depth should be considered as one of the parameters in accounting of GHG emissions.
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Bibliographic information
Publisher Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies
ISSN 1691-5976This bibliographic record has been provided by Fundamental Library of Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies
