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Conference paper2016

Carbon dioxide emissions from cultivated peat soil cropped with bio-energy crops, a RECARE project.

Berglund, Kerstin; Berglund, Örjan

Abstract

The degradation of drained peat soils in agricultural use is often an underestimated source of loss of organic matter due to oxidation and wind erosion. The oxidation can cause a loss of organic matter of 11 – 22 t ha-1 y-1 equivalent to CO2 emission of 20 – 40 t ha-1 y-1. Flooding agricultural peat soils to decrease the emissions is in many cases not possible without high costs, high GHG emissions and severe water pollution. Moreover sometimes cultural and historical landscapes and meadow birds’ areas are lost. In areas where the possibility to regulate the water table is limited the mitigation options are either to increase biomass production that can be used as bioenergy to substitute some fossil fuel, try to slow down the break-down of the peat by different amendments that inhibit microbial activity, or permanent flooding. The negative effects of wind erosion can be mitigated by reducing wind speed or different ways to protect the soil by crops or fiber sheets. The Broddbo case study site (60.0278766 N, 17.4299258 E) is located in the Bälinge Mossar peatland area on a typical Swedish fen peat soil (Euic Typic Haplosaprist H8-10, pH 5.3-5.8, LOI 82-87%) and cropped with reed canary grass, tall fescue and timothy to investigate the yield and greenhouse gas emissions from the different crops. The results from the first season 2015 (25/6 to 1/11) show that the yield (first cut 2.1 t dm*ha-1, second cut 1.9 t dm*ha-1) and CO2 emission (26.5 t CO2 *ha-1) are similar in all crops, and that the CO2 emission was influenced by ground water level.

Published in

Title: Proceedings of the 15th International Peat Congress
Publisher: International Peatland Society

Conference

15th International Peat Congress, Peatlands in Harmony – Agriculture, Industry and Nature.