Carbon Balance of a Boreal Bog during a Year with an Exceptionally Dry Summer

Alm, Jukka; Schulman, Leif; Waldén, Jari; Nykänen, Hannu; Martikainen, P.J.; Silvola, Jouko

doi:10.2307/176987

Cited by 118 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

177

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The water table was frequently below 40 cm during the growing seasons in the drained sites, but seldom in our undrained site, or wet pristine peatlands in general in our climate (e.g., Lähde, 1971;Alm et al, 1999). When the water level is 40 cm below the surface, the top 5 cm of soil may experience severe drought in the drained sites (Fig.…”

Section: Effect Of Water-level Drawdownmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…The soil C sink of a peatland (mire) is labile, and its persistence is sensitive to weather variations, especially moisture conditions. Large soil C losses from pristine mires have resulted following extended summer droughts (Alm et al, 1997(Alm et al, , 1999Moore et al, 2002). These results have raised a postulate that long-term water-level drawdown will diminish or end the C sink function of a peatland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Scots pine litter decomposition along drainage succession and soil nutrient gradients in peatland forests, and the effects of inter-annual weather variation

Laiho

Laine

Trettin

et al. 2004

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Peatlands form a large carbon (C) pool but their C sink is labile and susceptible to changes in climate and land-use. Some pristine peatlands are forested, and others have the potential: the amount of arboreal vegetation is likely to increase if soil water levels are lowered as a consequence of climate change. On those sites tree litter dynamics may be crucial for the C balance. We studied the decomposition of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) needle and root litter in boreal peatland sites representing gradients in drainage succession (succession following water level drawdown caused by forest drainage) and soil nutrient level during several years of varying weather conditions. Neither gradient had an unambiguous effect on litter mass loss. Mass loss over 2 years was faster in undrained versus drained sites for both needle litter, incubated in the moss layer, and fine root litter, incubated in 0-10 cm peat layer, suggesting moisture stress in the surface layers of the drained sites limited decomposition. Differences among the drained sites were not consistent. Among years, mass loss correlated positively with precipitation variables, and mostly negatively or not at all with temperature sum. We concluded that a long-term water-level drawdown in peatlands does not necessarily enhance decay of fresh organic matter. Instead, the drained site may turn into a ' large hummock-system' where several factors, including litter quality, relative moisture deficiency, higher acidity, lower substrate temperature, and in deeper layers also oxygen deficiency, may interact to constrain organic matter decomposition. Further, the decomposition rates may not vary systematically among sites of different soil nutrient levels following water-level drawdown. Our results emphasize the importance of annual weather variations on decomposition rates, and demonstrate that single-period incubation studies incorporate an indeterminable amount of temporal variation.

show abstract

Section: Effect Of Water-level Drawdownmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scots pine litter decomposition along drainage succession and soil nutrient gradients in peatland forests, and the effects of inter-annual weather variation

Laiho

Laine

Trettin

et al. 2004

Soil Biology and Biochemistry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Increase global warming is an important driver of change in the carbon balance of these ecosystems (Alm et al 1999). Over the period of , global air temperatures increased by about 0.7°C (IPCC Working Group 1 et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Experimental Temperature and Water Level Manipulation on Carbon Dioxide Release in a Poor Fen in Northern Poland

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Peatlands are ecosystems for which carbon budget relies strongly on the meteorological and hydrological conditions. Here, using a manipulative field experiment, we measured ecosystem respiration (R ECO ) over two years (2013)(2014) ). With the natural dry period event which occurred in 2014, the seasonal R ECO increased by approx. 0.2 μmol CO 2 m −2 s −1 as compared to the previous year. Projected global warming will therefore significantly enhance C loss from poor fens in this region of Europe.

show abstract

“…McKenzie et al, 1998); increasing drought frequency and severity triggers activation of new enzymatic processes (Freeman et al, 2001); and increasing temperature and drier conditions lead to increasing drawdown of water tables (Christensen et al, 1998). Inter-annual comparisons of net ecosystem exchange show that during dry years a peatland can change from a net sink of carbon to a net source (Alm et al, 1999;Griffs et al, 2000). However, these climatic effects could be accentuated by other factors including: changes in atmospheric deposition and land management.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thirdly, for none of the fluvial flux components were the losses in-stream considered. Fourthly, the study of Worrall et al (2003a) considered only one year indeed, Griffs et al (2000) and Alm et al (1999) have shown that the net ecosystem exchange of a peat bog can change from a net sink to a net source in dry years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The multi-annual carbon budget of a peat-covered catchment

Worrall

Burt

Rowson

et al. 2009

Science of The Total Environment

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study estimates the complete carbon budget of an 11.4 km 2 peat-covered catchment in Northern England. The budget considers both fluvial and gaseous carbon fluxes and includes estimates of particulate organic carbon (POC); dissolved organic carbon (DOC); excess dissolved CO 2 ; release of methane (CH 4 ); net ecosystem respiration of CO 2 ; and uptake of CO 2 by primary productivity. All components except CH 4 were measured directly in the catchment and annual carbon budgets were calculated for the catchment between 1993 and 2005 using both extrapolation and interpolation methods. The study shows that: Over the 13 year study period the total carbon balance varied between a net sink of − 20 to − 91 Mg C/km 2 /yr. The biggest component of this budget is the uptake of carbon by primary productivity (− 178 Mg C/km 2 /yr) and in most years the second largest component is the loss of DOC from the peat profile (+39 Mg C/km 2 /yr). Direct exchanges of C with the atmosphere average − 89 Mg C/km 2 /yr in the catchment. Extrapolating the general findings of the carbon budget across all UK peatlands results in an approximate carbon balance of − 1.2 Tg C/ yr (±0.4 Pg C/yr) which is larger than previously reported values. Carbon budgets should always be reported with a clear statement of the techniques used and errors involved as this is significant when comparing results across studies.

show abstract

Carbon Balance of a Boreal Bog during a Year with an Exceptionally Dry Summer

Cited by 118 publications

References 0 publications

Scots pine litter decomposition along drainage succession and soil nutrient gradients in peatland forests, and the effects of inter-annual weather variation

Scots pine litter decomposition along drainage succession and soil nutrient gradients in peatland forests, and the effects of inter-annual weather variation

The Impact of Experimental Temperature and Water Level Manipulation on Carbon Dioxide Release in a Poor Fen in Northern Poland

The multi-annual carbon budget of a peat-covered catchment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About