Studies on carbon exchange in grassland areas

Abstract

The paper presents the preliminary results of the task in the framework of ongoing project FINEGRASS “Effect of climatic changes on grassland growth, its water conditions and biomass” funded by the Polish-Norwegian Research Programme. The objective of this task is the assessment of carbon exchange in grassland areas using in-situ and remote sensing data. Grasslands are very sensitive ecosystem where significant changes of the carbon balance occur under different climate change, where grasslands either sequestrate or become the sources of carbon. The study was conducted in the years 2014–2015 at Wielkopolska Region, Biebrza River Valley, and Pieniny Mountains test sites, that cover three following grassland types: lowland non–valley, lowland valley, and mountainous. The paper presents in-situ and microwave and optical satellite observations to quantify relationships between soil-vegetation parameters that influence spatial and temporal variability of carbon fluxes over these areas. The next step of the study is the application of satellite data acquired in optical and microwave spectrum to develop method for the assessment of carbon fluxes