Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale
<p>The substantial climate change mitigation potential of restoring peatlands through rewetting and intensifying agriculture to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is largely recognized. The green deal in Denmark aims at restoring 100 000 <span class="inline-formula">ha</s...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Copernicus Publications
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Biogeosciences |
| Online Access: | https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/2387/2023/bg-20-2387-2023.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797797640564375552 |
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| author | J. Koch L. Elsgaard M. H. Greve S. Gyldenkærne C. Hermansen G. Levin S. Wu S. Stisen |
| author_facet | J. Koch L. Elsgaard M. H. Greve S. Gyldenkærne C. Hermansen G. Levin S. Wu S. Stisen |
| author_sort | J. Koch |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>The substantial climate change mitigation potential of restoring peatlands through rewetting and intensifying agriculture to reduce greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions is largely recognized. The green deal in Denmark aims at restoring 100 000 <span class="inline-formula">ha</span> of peatlands by 2030. This area corresponds to
more than half of the Danish peatland, with an expected reduction in GHG emissions of almost half of the entire land use, land use change and
forestry (LULUFC) emissions. Recent advances established the functional relationship between hydrological regimes, i.e., water table depth (WTD), and
<span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula">CH<sub>4</sub></span> emissions. This builds the basis for science-based tools to evaluate and prioritize peatland restoration
projects. With this article, we lay the foundation of such a development by developing a high-resolution WTD map for Danish peatlands. Further, we
define WTD response functions (<span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula">CH<sub>4</sub></span>) fitted to Danish flux data to derive a national GHG emission estimate for peat
soils. We estimate the annual GHG emissions to be 2.6 <span class="inline-formula">Mt CO<sub>2</sub>-eq</span>, which is around 15 % lower than previous estimates. Lastly, we
investigate alternative restoration scenarios and identify substantial differences in the GHG reduction potential depending on the prioritization of
fields in the rewetting strategy. If wet fields are prioritized, which is not unlikely in a context of a voluntary bottom-up approach, the GHG
reduction potential is just 30 % for the first 10 000 <span class="inline-formula">ha</span> with respect to a scenario that prioritizes drained fields. This underpins the
importance of the proposed framework linking WTD and GHG emissions to guide a spatially differentiated peatland restoration. The choice of model
type used to fit the <span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> WTD response function, the applied global warming potentials and uncertainties related to the WTD map are
investigated by means of a scenario analysis, which suggests that the estimated GHG emissions and the reduction potential are associated with
coefficients of variation of 13 % and 22 %, respectively.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T03:51:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-02fcee3f4ce0420384e3bcee1746c5c0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1726-4170 1726-4189 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T03:51:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biogeosciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-02fcee3f4ce0420384e3bcee1746c5c02023-06-22T12:35:14ZengCopernicus PublicationsBiogeosciences1726-41701726-41892023-06-01202387240310.5194/bg-20-2387-2023Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scaleJ. Koch0L. Elsgaard1M. H. Greve2S. Gyldenkærne3C. Hermansen4G. Levin5S. Wu6S. Stisen7Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Department of Hydrology, Copenhagen, DenmarkAarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Tjele, DenmarkAarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Tjele, DenmarkAarhus University, Department of Environmental Science, Roskilde, DenmarkAarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Tjele, DenmarkAarhus University, Department of Environmental Science, Roskilde, DenmarkAarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Tjele, DenmarkGeological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Department of Hydrology, Copenhagen, Denmark<p>The substantial climate change mitigation potential of restoring peatlands through rewetting and intensifying agriculture to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is largely recognized. The green deal in Denmark aims at restoring 100 000 <span class="inline-formula">ha</span> of peatlands by 2030. This area corresponds to more than half of the Danish peatland, with an expected reduction in GHG emissions of almost half of the entire land use, land use change and forestry (LULUFC) emissions. Recent advances established the functional relationship between hydrological regimes, i.e., water table depth (WTD), and <span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula">CH<sub>4</sub></span> emissions. This builds the basis for science-based tools to evaluate and prioritize peatland restoration projects. With this article, we lay the foundation of such a development by developing a high-resolution WTD map for Danish peatlands. Further, we define WTD response functions (<span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> and <span class="inline-formula">CH<sub>4</sub></span>) fitted to Danish flux data to derive a national GHG emission estimate for peat soils. We estimate the annual GHG emissions to be 2.6 <span class="inline-formula">Mt CO<sub>2</sub>-eq</span>, which is around 15 % lower than previous estimates. Lastly, we investigate alternative restoration scenarios and identify substantial differences in the GHG reduction potential depending on the prioritization of fields in the rewetting strategy. If wet fields are prioritized, which is not unlikely in a context of a voluntary bottom-up approach, the GHG reduction potential is just 30 % for the first 10 000 <span class="inline-formula">ha</span> with respect to a scenario that prioritizes drained fields. This underpins the importance of the proposed framework linking WTD and GHG emissions to guide a spatially differentiated peatland restoration. The choice of model type used to fit the <span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> WTD response function, the applied global warming potentials and uncertainties related to the WTD map are investigated by means of a scenario analysis, which suggests that the estimated GHG emissions and the reduction potential are associated with coefficients of variation of 13 % and 22 %, respectively.</p>https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/2387/2023/bg-20-2387-2023.pdf |
| spellingShingle | J. Koch L. Elsgaard M. H. Greve S. Gyldenkærne C. Hermansen G. Levin S. Wu S. Stisen Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale Biogeosciences |
| title | Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale |
| title_full | Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale |
| title_fullStr | Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale |
| title_full_unstemmed | Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale |
| title_short | Water-table-driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale |
| title_sort | water table driven greenhouse gas emission estimates guide peatland restoration at national scale |
| url | https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/20/2387/2023/bg-20-2387-2023.pdf |
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