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More Water – Rethinking the management of organic soils

Bärbel Tiemeyer | 30.06.2022


AK Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture

Peatlands have accumulated carbon for thousands of years. Draining them for agricultural use releases large amounts of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. And other ecosystem services suffer as well. How do we want to manage organic soils in the future?

Peatlands have accumulated carbon for thousands of years. Draining them for agricultural use releases large amounts of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O). And other ecosystem services suffer as well. How do we want to manage organic soils in the future?

Organic soils – meaning soils with a high content of organic carbon – store between 30 and 50 percent of the total soil organic carbon on earth, a pool that has been built up by peat-forming vegetation over several millennia. Disturbances of the peatland ecosystem, which is strongly dependent on the hydrological conditions, can have an extremely negative effect on the climate: if the groundwater level in the peatland is lowered, oxygen reaches the previously water-saturated peat, which leads to a microbial release of carbon as CO2. Furthermore, carbon is lost to bordering water bodies as dissolved organic carbon (DOC).

In Germany, four to five percent of all greenhouse gas emissions come from peatlands which are drained for agricultural or forestry use. In addition to the direct man-made drainage, climate change and N deposition are also threatening the remaining natural bogs and fens.

Natural peatlands can be important filters and sinks for nutrients and host a highly specialized animal and plant world. These ecosystem services are also lost or threatened by drainage. Instead, surface water bodies may be polluted with nutrients released from drained organic soils.

Peatlands and other organic soils in different parts of Germany

More water for the peatlands

As a society we are presented with the question of how we want to manage our organic soils in the future. Here, the production function and the ecosystem services, including the conservations of biodiversity, must be weighed professionally and supported with data. It is apparent that the only way to restore the diverse functions of the peatlands can be with “more water.” This can be achieved wet use (“paludiculture”) or by complete re-wetting.
The extent to which ecosystem functions can be restored by different approaches is a main focus of our research. For this purpose, we study the dynamics of biogeochemical and hydrological processes of semi-natural, drained, and re-wetted peatlands. We combine greenhouse gas data from throughout Germany (Article in Global Change Biology), conduct laboratory and field experiments and work with numerical and statistical models. Thus we develop concepts to quantify the “water-dependent” functions of organic soils, to upscale them and to assess their impact.

Expertise

Modelling the Hydrology of Organic Soils

Hydrological processes have a decisive influence on the greenhouse gas and nutrient dynamics of organic soils. Hydrological modelling serves to answer these types of questions.

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Modelling the Hydrology of Organic Soils

Dissolved organic carbon

Carbon losses via the aquatic pathway

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Dissolved organic carbon

Projects

Joint research project "Organic soils"

Accounting for 2-5% of the German greenhouse gas emissions, drained peatlands are the largest single source besides the energy sector. Thus, the compilation of the national greenhouse gas inventory according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change requires the application of country-specific emission factors depending on climate region, soil type and land use as well as a complete set of activity data.

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Joint research project "Organic soils"

CAOS - Climate Smart Agriculture on Organic Soils

Organic soils store a major share of the world's soil organic carbon and have widely been drained for agricultural cultivation, turning them into a strong source of greenhouse gases (GHG). How can Europe's drained organic soils be managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance adapted agricultural use at the same time?

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CAOS - Climate Smart Agriculture on Organic Soils

Water management for the reduction of GHG emissions from grasslands on peat soils (SWAMPS)

Is it possible to reduce the high greenhouse gas emissions of intensively used grasslands on peat soils by adapted active water management?

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Water management for the reduction of GHG emissions from grasslands on peat soils (SWAMPS)

Sphagnum Farming: Effects on biodiversity and climate protection

What are the effects of Sphagnum farming on biodiversity and climate protection?

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Sphagnum Farming: Effects on biodiversity and climate protection

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