Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 578, Issue -, Pages 601-612Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.11.005
Keywords
Peatland; Carbon dioxide; Methane; Nitrous oxide; Ditch flux; Restoration
Categories
Funding
- UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs [SP1210]
- Natural Environment Research Council [NE/P014097/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- NERC [NE/P014097/1] Funding Source: UKRI
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Globally, large areas of peatland have been drained through the digging of ditches, generally to increase agricultural production. By lowering the water table it is often assumed that drainage reduces landscape-scale emissions of methane (CH4) into the atmosphere to negligible levels. However, drainage ditches themselves are known to be sources of CH4 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), but emissions data are scarce, particularly for carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O), and show high spatial and temporal variability. Here, we report dissolved GHGs and diffusive fluxes of CH4 and CO2 from ditches at three UK lowland fens under different management; semi-natural fen, cropland, and cropland restored to low-intensity grassland. Ditches at all three fens emitted GHGs to the atmosphere, but both fluxes and dissolved GHGs showed extensive variation both seasonally and within-site. CH4 fluxes were particularly large, with medians peaking at all three sites in August at 120-230 mg m(-2) d(-1). Significant between site differences were detected between the cropland and the other two sites for CO2 flux and all three dissolved GHGs, suggesting that intensive agriculture has major effects on ditch biogeochemistry. Multiple regression models using environmental and water chemistry data were able to explain 29-59% of observed variation in dissolved GHGs. Annual CH4 fluxes from the ditches were 37.8, 183 and 272 g CH4 m(-2) yr(-1) for the semi-natural, grassland and cropland, and annual CO2 fluxes were similar (1100 to 1440 g CO2 m(-2) yr(-1)) among sites. We suggest that fen ditches are important contributors to landscape scale GHG emissions, particularly for CH4. Ditch emissions should be included in GHG budgets of human modified fens, particularly where drainage has removed the original terrestrial CH4 source, e.g. agricultural peatlands. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available