Eroding blanket peat catchments: Global and local implications of upland organic sediment budgets

Evans, Martin; Warburton, Jeff; Yang, Juan

doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2005.09.015

Cited by 124 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

126

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, the loss of POC from bare peat surfaces may be considerable where the surface is exposed and subject to wind or water erosion (Evans et al, 2006;Lindsay, 2010). While some of the windborne POC is likely to be deposited within the extraction field itself, a proportion undoubtedly leaves the peatland, although there are currently few data available to quantify losses from either wind or water erosion or the extent to which POC is converted to CO 2 (IPCC, 2014).…”

Section: Information Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Derivation of greenhouse gas emission factors for peatlands managed for extraction in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

Wilson¹,

Dixon

Artz

et al. 2015

Biogeosciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Drained peatlands are significant hotspots of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions and may also be more vulnerable to fire with its associated gaseous emissions. Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from peatlands managed for extraction are reported on an annual basis. However, the Tier 1 (default) emission factors (EFs) provided in the IPCC 2013 Wetlands Supplement for this land use category may not be representative in all cases and countries are encouraged to move to highertier reporting levels with reduced uncertainty levels based on country-or regional-specific data. In this study, we quantified (1) CO 2 -C emissions from nine peat extraction sites in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom, which were initially disaggregated by land use type (industrial versus domestic peat extraction), and (2) a range of GHGs that are released to the atmosphere with the burning of peat. Drainagerelated methane (CH 4 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions as well as CO 2 -C emissions associated with the off-site decomposition of horticultural peat were not included here. Our results show that net CO 2 -C emissions were strongly controlled by soil temperature at the industrial sites (bare peat) and by soil temperature and leaf area index at the vegetated domestic sites. Our derived EFs of 1.70 (±0.47) and 1.64 (±0.44) t CO 2 -C ha −1 yr −1 for the industrial and domestic sites respectively are considerably lower than the Tier 1 EF (2.8 ± 1.7 t CO 2 -C ha −1 yr −1 ) provided in the Wetlands Supplement. We propose that the difference between our derived values and the Wetlands Supplement value is due to differences in peat quality and, consequently, decomposition rates. Emissions from burning of the peat (g kg −1 dry fuel burned) were estimated to be approximately 1346 CO 2 , 8.35 methane (CH 4 ), 218 carbon monoxide (CO), 1.53 ethane (C 2 H 6 ), 1.74 ethylene (C 2 H 4 ), 0.60 methanol (CH 3 OH), 2.21 hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and 0.73 ammonia (NH 3 ), and this emphasises the importance of understanding the full suite of trace gas emissions from biomass burning. Our results highlight the importance of generating reliable Tier 2 values for different regions and land use categories. Furthermore, given that the IPCC Tier 1 EF was only based on 20 sites (all from Canada and Fennoscandia), we suggest that data from another 9 sites significantly expand the global data set, as well as adding a new region.

show abstract

Section: Information Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Derivation of greenhouse gas emission factors for peatlands managed for extraction in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

Wilson¹,

Dixon

Artz

et al. 2015

Biogeosciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The reason for this large uncertainty is that the fit of the rating curve is a significant fit but there is considerable scatter in the data. Evans et al (2006) report values of POC export from a peat-covered catchment, assuming an organic carbon content of organic matter as 50%, are as high as 185.9 Mg C/ km 2 /yr for a small upland peat catchment in the southern Pennines. However, lower values have been measured for mid-Wales (2.7 MgC/ km 2 /yr - Dawson et al, 2002), NE Scotland (1.9 MgC/km 2 /yr), and as low as 0.12 MgC/km 2 /yr for a partially peat-covered catchment (64% peat cover) in northern Scotland (Dawson et al, 1995).…”

Section: Pocmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It might be considered that only direct atmospheric exchange of carbon is important and so loss of carbon via fluvial pathways need not be considered. However, fluvial fluxes do contribute to atmospheric carbon and the stability of peatlands is often closely coupled to fluvial carbon loss (Evans et al, 2006). If both fluvial and gaseous losses are being considered then it is a peat-covered catchment that must be considered and not just a peat soil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The multi-annual carbon budget of a peat-covered catchment

Worrall

Burt

Rowson

et al. 2009

Science of The Total Environment

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study estimates the complete carbon budget of an 11.4 km 2 peat-covered catchment in Northern England. The budget considers both fluvial and gaseous carbon fluxes and includes estimates of particulate organic carbon (POC); dissolved organic carbon (DOC); excess dissolved CO 2 ; release of methane (CH 4 ); net ecosystem respiration of CO 2 ; and uptake of CO 2 by primary productivity. All components except CH 4 were measured directly in the catchment and annual carbon budgets were calculated for the catchment between 1993 and 2005 using both extrapolation and interpolation methods. The study shows that: Over the 13 year study period the total carbon balance varied between a net sink of − 20 to − 91 Mg C/km 2 /yr. The biggest component of this budget is the uptake of carbon by primary productivity (− 178 Mg C/km 2 /yr) and in most years the second largest component is the loss of DOC from the peat profile (+39 Mg C/km 2 /yr). Direct exchanges of C with the atmosphere average − 89 Mg C/km 2 /yr in the catchment. Extrapolating the general findings of the carbon budget across all UK peatlands results in an approximate carbon balance of − 1.2 Tg C/ yr (±0.4 Pg C/yr) which is larger than previously reported values. Carbon budgets should always be reported with a clear statement of the techniques used and errors involved as this is significant when comparing results across studies.

show abstract

“…Increasing summer drought and winter rainfall would enhance peatland erosion and export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) in susceptible areas, particularly in the upland blanket bogs of the UK and Norway (e.g. Bower 1960Bower , 1961Francis 1990;Evans et al 2006b;Evans and Warburton 2010). Drier mire surfaces in summer would enhance the risk of peatland fires, which lead to strong local emissions of CO 2 (Davies et al 2013) and waterborne DOC (Holden et al 2007;Clutterbuck and Yallop 2010).…”

Section: Climatic Impacts On Abiotic Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Impacts—Terrestrial Ecosystems

Hölzel

Hickler

Kutzbach

et al. 2016

North Sea Region Climate Change Assessment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The chapter starts with a discussion of general patterns and processes in terrestrial ecosystems, including the impacts of climate change in relation to productivity, phenology, trophic matches and mismatches, range shifts and biodiversity. Climate impacts on specific ecosystem types-forests, grasslands, heathlands, and mires and peatlands-are then discussed in detail. The chapter concludes by discussing links between changes in inland ecosystems and the wider North Sea system. Future climate change is likely to increase net primary productivity in the North Sea region due to warmer conditions and longer growing seasons, at least if summer precipitation does not decrease as strongly as projected in some of the more extreme climate scenarios. The effects of total carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems are highly uncertain, due to the inherent complexity of the processes involved. For moderate climate change, land use effects are often more important drivers of total ecosystem carbon accumulation than climate change. Across a wide range of organism groups, range expansions to higher latitudes and altitudes and changes in phenology have occurred in response to recent climate change. For the range expansions, some studies suggest substantial differences between organism groups. Habitat specialists with restricted ranges have generally responded very little or even shown range contractions. Many of already threatened species could be particularly vulnerable to climate change. Overall, effects of recent climate change on terrestrial ecosystems within the North Sea region are still limited.

show abstract

Eroding blanket peat catchments: Global and local implications of upland organic sediment budgets

Cited by 124 publications

References 29 publications

Derivation of greenhouse gas emission factors for peatlands managed for extraction in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

Derivation of greenhouse gas emission factors for peatlands managed for extraction in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom

The multi-annual carbon budget of a peat-covered catchment

Environmental Impacts—Terrestrial Ecosystems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About