Callaghan, Nathan

Cumming, Alex

Evans, Chris

Morrison, Ross

NERC Open Research Archive

Quantifying the carbon balance of lowland peatlandsRoss Morrison, Alex Cumming, Nathan Callaghan, Chris Evans & many, many otherso Past and current work at UK lowland peatlands (Defra Lowland Peat Phase 1)o Forthcoming work at lowland agricultural peatlands (Defra Lowland Peat Phase 2)OutlineEddy covariance flux tower networkBD-EG16 active (CEH) sites - 10 at peatlando Direct measurement of land to atmosphere fluxes (water, CO2, CH4, energy, etc.)o Whole ecosystem dynamicso Quasi-continuous (thirty minute) flux densitieso Large upwind source area (flux footprint)Eddy covariancesourcesinkValley Fen: Anglesey  AF-LN (Anglesey, Low nutrient)Managed Grassland: Somerset Levels  EF-SA: October 2012 to September 2019 Cropland, East AngliaHutchinson, J. N. (1980) The Record of Peat Wastage in the East Anglian Fenlands at Holme Post, 1848-1978 A.D. Journal of Ecology. 68 (1)Soil loss & land subsidenceUK peat emissions inventoryUK peatland condition, circa 2013• Around 50% of UK peatland is still in a semi-natural condition (mostly in the uplands• Agricultural peatlands comprise < 15% of the total peat area (all in the lowlands) UK peat emissions inventoryTotal GHG emissions from UK organic soils• Total emissions estimated to be 23 Mt CO2e yr-1• This is around 4% of UK total GHG emissions• Over 50% of UK peat GHG emissions are from intensive agricultural land• These areas occupy <2% of the total UK land areaCropland mitigation – all or nothing?• Barriers to progress:• Farmers do not want to stop farming• Paludiculture not currently seen as a viable or economic alternative• No reward for raising water levels in agricultural peatland -20 tCO2e ha-1 yr-1-9 tCO2e ha-1 yr-1-33 tCO2e ha-1 yr-1LP2: Water level manipulation experimentSkyline-2D: greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, N2O) measurement system New flux site: Deep agricultural peat (EF-NE)What about ‘skirtland’…? Evans et al. (2016) based on map data from Natural England (2010)New flux site: Skirtland (EF-SK)A Dream partnershipo Ongoing (and forthcoming) flux tower work to quantify the carbon balance of lowland peatlands under different land useo Experimental work focused on real-world solutions to mitigate emissions from lowland agricultural peatland Summary

Quantifying the carbon balance of lowland peatlands

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/525272/1/N525272PT.pdf

Quantifying the carbon balance of lowland peatlands

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