Organic matter losses from temperate ombrotrophic peatlands: an evaluation of the ash residue method

Leifeld, Jens; Gubler, Lena; Grünig, Andreas

doi:10.1007/s11104-010-0649-y

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 12 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…Considering that GRC is a ‘pristine’ bog, EGB is a moderately managed and drained former bog, P33 is a heavily drained and agriculturally managed peatland, and HMC is a formerly drained but now rehabilitated peatland, differences may be related to the land‐use history of the site. From previous studies [ Leifeld et al , 2011a, 2011b] we know that P33 and EGB lost 350 and 243 t C ha −1 due to drainage, which corresponds to roughly two m of subsidence in the case of P33. This means that the former peatland nowadays exposes peat that was buried at a depth of two m before drainage, as also indicated by the surface peat having a high 14 C age of close to 4000 years [ Leifeld et al , 2011b].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Hagenmoos (HMC) is a formerly drained bog rehabilitated in 1982 (sampling depth 0–2 m), and sites Parzelle 33 (P33) and Lindenhof (WIB) are the most degraded former peatlands drained 140 years ago and nowadays under intensive agricultural management (annuals, partially vegetable cropping; sampling depths 0–1.4 and 0–0.28 m). Site details for GRC, EGB, and HMC can be found in Leifeld et al [2011a], for P33 and WIB in Leifeld et al [2011b], and for SBA in Rogiers et al [2008]. All soils were sampled volumetrically using peat corers (GRC, EGB, SBA, HMC) or from open profiles using steel zylinders (P33, WIB).…”

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sensitivity of peatland carbon loss to organic matter quality

Leifeld

Steffens

Galego-Sala

2012

Geophysical Research Letters

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118

127

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[1] Peatland soils store substantial amounts of organic matter (OM). During peat formation, easily decomposable OM is preferentially lost and more recalcitrant moieties accumulate. In a peat profile, OM quality thus scales with depth. Drainage and ongoing climate change poses the risk of rapid OM loss when formerly anoxic peat layers oxidize. During peat decomposition, deeper, more recalcitrant peat is exposed to the oxygen-rich surface, which may influence the decomposition rate. We show that the soil respiration rate of a disturbed temperate peatland is strongly controlled by the peat's quality and especially its polysaccharides content. The polysaccharide content of soil profiles in a wider range of peatland sites with differing degrees of disturbance was inferred by means of solid-state 13 C NMR and DRIFT spectroscopy. The data confirmed a strong decline in polysaccharide content with depth and a poor OM quality of surface peat in soils drained decades ago. We combined the evidence from respiration and spectroscopic measurements to deduce the sensitivity of peatland carbon loss with respect to OM quality by scaling measured quality to a 142-years record of peatland subsidence and carbon loss at one of the sites. According to the functional relationship between quality and respiration, the measured average annual carbon loss rate of 2.5 t C ha À1 at that site was 20 t C ha À1 at the onset of peatland drainage and dropped to less than 1 t C ha À1 in recent times. Citation: Leifeld, J., M. Steffens, and A. Galego-Sala (2012), Sensitivity of peatland carbon loss to organic matter quality,

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity of peatland carbon loss to organic matter quality

Leifeld

Steffens

Galego-Sala

2012

Geophysical Research Letters

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118

127

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“…We calculated the expected mass of C for the surface peat samples of drained peatlands by multiplying their observed ash content with the average C to ash ratio obtained from the pristine peatlands (see Appendix 2 for detailed description of the chemical analyses). The loss of C ( CASH) for each sample was then estimated as the difference between the expected and the observed mass of C of the samples from the drained sites (Leifeld et al, 2011;Grønlund et al, 2008). The estimated C loss per m 2 for each drained site was then calculated by multiplying the average C loss of each sample with 1/sampler area (m 2 ) (see Appendix 3).…”

Section: Carbon Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fighting carbon loss of degraded peatlands by jump-starting ecosystem functioning with ecological restoration

Kareksela

Haapalehto

Juutinen

et al. 2015

Science of The Total Environment

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Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston matemaattis-luonnontieteellisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa S212 maaliskuun 28. päivänä 2014 kello 12.Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science of the University of Jyväskylä, in building Seminarium, auditorium S212, on March 28, 2014 at 12 o'clock noon. The wide and rapidly increasing human land use has caused extensive degradation of natural landscapes, extinctions of species and loss of ecosystem functions and services. Subsequently, ecological restoration has been raised to a major global strategy for safeguarding ecosystem values. However, concerns have been raised on the real potential of restoration to re-establish ecosystem structures and functions. Here, I studied the effects of ecological restoration on the structure and functions of forestry drained boreal peatland ecosystems in southern Finland. To better understand structural and functional changes, the effects of drainage and restoration on water table level, pore water chemistry and peat chemistry were explored as well. Drainage lowered the water table and induced changes in pore water chemistry and plant community composition. Drainage retarded the accumulation of surface peat and resulted in significant reduction in the sequestration of carbon therein. Re-establishment of water table level and significant recovery of pore water and surface peat chemistry were observed after restoration. Restoration induced the recovery of ecosystem structure i.e. plant community composition towards the target. The recovery was dependent on the within-site degree of ecosystem degradation. The original ecosystem structure was not needed for the re-establishment of important peatland ecosystem functionality in terms of surface peat accumulation. However, a more profound recovery of structure and conditions may be needed for some other functions like surface peat carbon sequestration to recover. Overall, my results are promising from the perspective of restoration. However, they highlight the need for patience in drawing conclusions on the effectiveness of restoration. Practitioners should also be prepared for temporarily increased leaching of nutrients into downstream water courses. UNIVERSITY

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“…This estimate of Rogiers et al (2008) is based on differences in ash content after combustion of the peat profile. A similar approach was used by Leifeld et al (2011a), who estimated mean carbon loss rates ranging from +140 to +490 g C m −2 a −1 for two drained pre-Alpine mountain bogs. Kluge et al (2008) modeled a larger mean annual peat-carbon loss of about +700 g C m −2 a −1 for an agricultural peatland in northeastern Germany.…”

Section: Long-term Carbon Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

Can a bog drained for forestry be a stronger carbon sink than a natural bog forest?

et al. 2014

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Abstract. This study compares the CO 2 exchange of a natural bog forest, and of a bog drained for forestry in the pre-Alpine region of southern Germany. The sites are separated by only 10 km, they share the same soil formation history and are exposed to the same climate and weather conditions. In contrast, they differ in land use history: at the Schechenfilz site a natural bog-pine forest (Pinus mugo ssp. rotundata) grows on an undisturbed, about 5 m thick peat layer; at Mooseurach a planted spruce forest (Picea abies) grows on drained and degraded peat (3.4 m). The net ecosystem exchange of CO 2 (NEE) at both sites has been investigated for 2 years (July 2010-June 2012), using the eddy covariance technique. Our results indicate that the drained, forested bog at Mooseurach is a much stronger carbon dioxide sink (−130 ± 31 and −300 ± 66 g C m −2 a −1 in the first and second year, respectively) than the natural bog forest at Schechenfilz (−53 ± 28 and −73 ± 38 g C m −2 a −1 ). The strong net CO 2 uptake can be explained by the high gross primary productivity of the 44-year old spruces that overcompensates the two-times stronger ecosystem respiration at the drained site. The larger productivity of the spruces can be clearly attributed to the larger plant area index (PAI) of the spruce site. However, even though current flux measurements indicate strong CO 2 uptake of the drained spruce forest, the site is a strong net CO 2 source when the whole lifecycle since forest planting is considered. It is important to access this result in terms of the long-term biome balance. To do so, we used historical data to estimate the difference between carbon fixation by the spruces and the carbon loss from the peat due to drainage since forest planting. This rough estimate indicates a strong carbon release of +134 t C ha −1 within the last 44 years. Thus, the spruces would need to grow for another 100 years at about the current rate, to compensate the potential peat loss of the former years. In contrast, the natural bog-pine ecosystem has likely been a small but stable carbon sink for decades, which our results suggest is very robust regarding short-term changes of environmental factors.

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Organic matter losses from temperate ombrotrophic peatlands: an evaluation of the ash residue method

Cited by 25 publications

References 12 publications

Sensitivity of peatland carbon loss to organic matter quality

Sensitivity of peatland carbon loss to organic matter quality

Fighting carbon loss of degraded peatlands by jump-starting ecosystem functioning with ecological restoration

Can a bog drained for forestry be a stronger carbon sink than a natural bog forest?

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