Environmental assessment of greenhouse gases' emission in poplar plantation under extreme climate conditions of winter 2019/2020

Abstract

Global changes, triggered by increased anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, are the main problem of modern ecology. Soil is the main terrestrial reservoir of carbon, in both organic and inorganic forms. Forests are the major asset in carbon cycling and the mitigation of global climate change in the terrestrial ecosystem, because forest ecosystems in a temperate climate area are the major sink of CO2 from the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide emission from the soil is the major component of greenhouse gas emission, as well as the main respiratory flux from most forest ecosystems. In circumstances of changed climate and increased frequency of extreme climate events, soil greenhouse gas emission from forest ecosystems is gaining more and more importance, having in mind that soil temperature is one of the main limitation factors of greenhouse gas emission from the soil. From the results obtained from the experiment it is evident that the unusually warm winter of 2019/20 had as a consequence higher emission of greenhouse gases from all three experimental plots. Differences in emission between plots and between days can be explained by three main factors: soil composition, temperature difference between days of sampling, and soil moisture content. With an increased frequency of extreme climate events, as a consequence of global climate changes, the occurrence of higher winter temperatures is expected to be more frequent in the future, affecting also higher emission of greenhouse gases from the soil.