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Conference poster2011Peer reviewed

Do crops matter? CO2 emissions from cultivated peat soil

Norberg, Lisbet; Berglund, Örjan; Berglund, Kerstin

Abstract

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental issues in our time. Drained peat soils emit 6-8 % of the total annual emission of greenhouse gases in Sweden. About 8% of the agricultural land in Sweden is drained peat soil. Peat soils in Sweden are mainly low intensity cultivated with ley and pastures but a smaller part is annual crops including row crops like carrots and potato. A common way of calculating CO2 emissions is to use the subsidence rate of the peat soil. Oxidation of the organic matter is an important process for subsidence and this process may be influenced by cultivation intensity. Studies using this method indicate that grasslands emit less CO2 than more intensively grown annual crops. In our study we have used the dark chamber method to measure the impact that cropping system might have on the CO2 emissions from peat soil. Two different crops on fields with the same soil properties, e.g. on each side of a ditch or field border, is compared by sampling CO2 in the field. Measurements from plots with crop and with bare soil have been carried out during two growing seasons, 2009 and 2010. Crops compared in this study are ley/carrots in 2009 and ley/barley in 2010. Our results show that cropping system has minor effect on CO2 emissions from peat soils and indicate a higher CO2 emission from ley compared to carrots and barley. Other factors like soil type, temperature, soil moisture have greater impact on the emissions

Published in

NJF Report
2011, Volume: 7, number: 3, pages: 219-219
Publisher: Nordic Association of Agricultural Scientists

Conference

24th NJF Congress, Uppsala, Sweden, June 14-16, 2011