CARBAL
The Effect of Management
Strategies on Greenhouse Gas Balances in Industrial Cutaway Peatlands in
Wilson, D. and Farrell, E.P. (2007). Carbal: Carbon Gas Balances in Industrial Cutaway Peatlands in Ireland. Final Report. Forest Ecosystem Research Group, University College Dublin, Dublin.
Sponsors
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Prof.
Edward P. Farrell
Role:
Project Leader
Background:
Director of the Forest
Ecosystem Research Group
Research
Interests:
E-mail:
ted.farrell@ucd.ie
Phone: + 353 1 716 77
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Kenneth A. Byrne
Role:
Project Manager 1999-2003. Investigation of soil CO2 fluxes in Sitka
Spruce and birch/willow woodland
Background:
Research
Interests:
Greenhouse gas balances and carbon
stocks in forests, peatlands and grassland, carbon accounting
E-mail: k.byrne@ucc.ie
Phone:
+ 353 21 490 3025
Web: www.ucc.ie/hydromet/
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Role:
PhD student investigating carbon dioxide and methane dynamics within the wetland
plant communities at the restored cutaway site at Turraun, Co.Offaly and methane
dynamics at the raised bog study site at Clara, Co.Offaly.
Background:
Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons.)
Research
Interests:
Carbon cycling in wetlands, succession processes in restored peatlands.
E-mail:
david.g.wilson@ucd.ie
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Role:
Research into biomass functions for
Research
Interests:
Carbon Accounting, Forestry, Bioenergy
E-mail:
carly.green@ucd.ie
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Role: Research into biomass functions for birch (Betula spp.) at Turraun, Co.Offaly
Research
Interests:
E-mail:
minna.pollanen@ucd.ie
Web: BOGFOR
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ms. Anna Noksio-Koivisto
Role:
Masters student investigating carbon dioxide dynamics at the pristine peatland
study site at Clara, Co. Offaly.
Docent
Jukka Alm Finnish Forest Research Institute, Joensuu
,
Dr.
Eeva-Stiina Tuittila, Peatland Ecology Group, Department of Forest Ecology,
Peatlands
in
A.
To assess the GHG balances of cutaway peatlands under various management
options. Specific site types to be studied are:
B.
To model the responses of GHG balances on these cutaway and intact peatlands to
changing climatic variables. These models will be compared to similar models
developed in
Specifically CO2 and CH4
dynamics will be modelled with respect to photosynthetically active radiation
(PAR), soil temperature, water table level, seasonality etc. The models will be
primarily used for compiling the annual GHG balances and for simulating the
effects of temperatures and water table level changes.
Project deliverables
The
project will yield information on the GHG balance of cutaway peatland under
various management options.
The results can be used to compare the effect of
different management strategies on the GHG balance of cutaway peatlands and to
compile GHG sources and sinks for the Bord na Mona estate.
The results can be used in the compilation of life-cycle analyses for industrial peatlands.
Turraun. The primary study site was located in a restored
cutaway peatland at Turraun, Co.Offaly. The study commenced in 1999 with the
measurement of CO2 fluxes within the birch/willow woodland.
Measurements within the wetland communities began in the spring of 2002 and
finished in December 2003.
Photo: D.Wilson
The dominant wetland plant communities were
identified and gas sample plots were established among the following microsites:
Sixty gas sample plots were established in
birch/willow woodland to study C dynamics under natural regeneration.
Photo: D.Wilson
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lullymore: The
effect of afforestation on C was studied at a
Photo:
F.Renou
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Clara: Carbon gas exchange was investigated among a range
of microsites (hummocks, lawns and hollows) at Clara, Co.Offaly.
Photo: F.Renou
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At the rewetted study site at Turraun and the raised
bog site at Clara, carbon (C) fluxes were measured using static light and dark
chambers (four per site). CO2 was measured in situ using a
portable infra-red gas analyser. CH4
was taken into syringes and measured in the laboratory within 24 hours of
sampling. Flux rates are determined using regression techniques.
Photo:
D.Wilson
At the afforested and natural regeneration sites
dark chambers were used to derive estimates for soil and root respiration.
Estimated "old" peat (heterotrophic) respiration was measured from
plots where roots were eliminated with a cylinder driven into the soil below the
rooting zone. The proportion of carbon allocated to the tree stand was estimated
using tree stand measurements and existing forest yield and biomass-carbon
density models, and the above-ground litter fall was monitored.
Photos:
K. Byrne
A meteorological station was established at Turraun
and soil temperature and water table depth was monitored at all sites.
Wilson, D., Alm, J., Laine, J., Byrne, K.A., Farrell, E.P. and Tuittila, E.S. (2008). Rewetting of Cutaway Peatlands: Are We Re-Creating Hotspots of Methane Emissions? Restoration Ecology, in Press.
Wilson, D., Tuittila, E.-S., Alm, J., Laine, J., Farrell, E.P. and Byrne, K.A. (2007b). Carbon Dioxide Dynamics of a Restored Maritime Peatland. Ecoscience, 14(1), 71-80.
Wilson
D, Tuittila E-S, Alm J, Laine J, Farrell EP and Byrne KA (2004) C02
fluxes over two growing seasons at a restored cutaway peatland in
Wilson D., Byrne K.A and Farrell E.P (2002). Summertime CO2 fluxes in a restored industrial cutaway peatland: a preliminary estimation using static chambers. In 12th Irish Environmental Researchers Colloquium, 25th to 27th January 2002, University College Cork, Book of Abstracts, p.36
Byrne, K.A.,
Farrell, E.P., Laine, J. and Alm, J. (2001) Soil CO2 emissions in a
Byrne,
K.A., Farrell, E.P., and O’Toole, P (2000)
Greenhouse gas emissions in restored cutaway peatlands in central
O'Shea, M. (2002).
Biomass distribution in a
Gonzalez Del Campo, A. (2001). Carbon
fluxes in a