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Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from reed canary grass in paludiculture: effect of groundwater level

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Abstract

Background and aims

Combination of rewetting and wetland crop cultivation (paludiculture) is pursued as a wider carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation option in drained peatland. However, information on the overall greenhouse gas (GHG) balance for paludiculture is lacking. We investigated the GHG balance of peatlands grown with reed canary grass (RCG) and rewetted to various extents.

Methods

Gas fluxes of CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) were measured with a static chamber technique for 10 months from mesocosms sown with RCG and manipulated to ground water levels (GWL) of 0, −10, −20, −30 and −40 cm below the soil surface. Gross primary production (GPP) was estimated from the above ground biomass yield.

Results

The mean dry biomass yield across all water table treatments was 6 Mg ha−1 with no significant differences between the treatments. Raising the GWL to the surface decreased both the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 and N2O emissions whereas CH4 emissions increased. Total cumulative GHG emissions (for 10 months) corresponded to 0.08, 0.13, 0.61, 0.68 and 0.98 kg CO2 equivalents m−2 from the GWL treatments at 0, −10, −20, −30 and −40 cm below the soil surface, respectively.

Conclusions

The results showed that a reduction in total GHG emission can be achieved without losing the productivity of newly established RCG when GWL is maintained close to the surface. Further studies should address the practical constrains and long-term productivity of RCG cultivation in rewetted peatlands.

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Acknowledgments

The study was partly financed by the Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture (DCA) as a part of BioBase programme. The authors would like to thank Sanmohan Baby for statistical advice and Bodil Stensgaard, Finn Henning Christensen, Holger Bak, Jørgen M. Nielsen and Stig T. Rasmussen for their technical assistance. The authors would also like to thank Søren O. Petersen for his valuable suggestions during the internal review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, P.O. Box 50, Blichers Allé 20, 8830, Tjele, Denmark

    Sandhya Karki, Lars Elsgaard & Poul Erik Lærke

  2. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Vejlsøvej 25, 8600, Silkeborg, Denmark

    Joachim Audet

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  1. Sandhya Karki
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  2. Lars Elsgaard
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  3. Joachim Audet
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  4. Poul Erik Lærke
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Correspondence to Sandhya Karki.

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Responsible Editor: Tim Moore.

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Karki, S., Elsgaard, L., Audet, J. et al. Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions from reed canary grass in paludiculture: effect of groundwater level. Plant Soil 383, 217–230 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2164-z

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