TY - JOUR

T1 - A new methodology for organic soils in national greenhouse gas inventories

T2 - Data synthesis, derivation and application

AU - Tiemeyer, Bärbel

AU - Freibauer, Annette

AU - Borraz, Elisa Albiac

AU - Augustin, Jürgen

AU - Bechtold, Michel

AU - Beetz, Sascha

AU - Beyer, Colja

AU - Ebli, Martin

AU - Eickenscheidt, Tim

AU - Fiedler, Sabine

AU - Förster, Christoph

AU - Gensior, Andreas

AU - Giebels, Michael

AU - Glatzel, Stephan

AU - Heinichen, Jan

AU - Hoffmann, Mathias

AU - Höper, Heinrich

AU - Jurasinski, Gerald

AU - Laggner, Andreas

AU - Leiber-Sauheitl, Katharina

AU - Peichl-Brak, Mandy

AU - Drösler, Matthias

N1 - Funding Information: The projects “Climate protection by peatland protection” and “Organic soils in the emission reporting” were funded by the German Ministry of Education ( BMBF , Grant No. 01LS05046 , 01LS05048 , 01LS05051 , and 01LS05049 ) and the Thünen-Institute, respectively. Parts of the measurements in Graben-Neudorf were funded by the Federal State Baden-Württemberg (EmMo, Grant No. BWM11005 ). Measurements at the Hammelwarder Moor were funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection and the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection. We would like to thank all the technical staff, students and anyone else who helped in the field and in the laboratory as well as farmers and Nature Protection Agencies who granted access to the measurement sites. Furthermore, we thank Carla Bockermann (HSWT) for language editing.

PY - 2020/2

Y1 - 2020/2

N2 - Drained organic soils are large sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) in many European and Asian countries. Therefore, these soils urgently need to be considered and adequately accounted for when attempting to decrease emissions from the Agriculture and Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sectors. Here, we describe the methodology, data and results of the German approach for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of anthropogenic GHG emissions from drained organic soils and outline ways forward towards tracking drainage and rewetting. The methodology was developed for and is currently applied in the German GHG inventory under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. Spatial activity data comprise high resolution maps of land-use, type of organic soil and mean annual water table (WT). The WT map was derived by a boosted regression trees model from data of more than 1000 dipwells. Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) were synthesized from a unique national data set comprising more than 250 annual GHG balances from 118 sites in most land-use categories and types of organic soils. Measurements were performed with harmonized protocols using manual chambers. Non-linear response functions describe the dependency of CO2 and CH4 fluxes on mean annual WT, stratified by land-use where appropriate. Modelling results were aggregated into “implied emission factors” for each land-use category, taking into account the uncertainty of the response functions, the frequency distribution of the WT within each land-use category and further GHG sources such as dissolved organic carbon or CH4 emissions from ditches. IPCC default emission factors were used for these minor GHG sources. In future, response functions could be applied directly when appropriate WT data is available. As no functional relationship was found for N2O emissions, emission factors were calculated as the mean observed flux per land-use category. In Germany, drained organic soils emit more than 55 million tons of GHGs per year, of which 91% are CO2. This is equivalent to around 6.6% of the national GHG emissions in 2014. Thus, they are the largest GHG source from agriculture and LULUCF. The described methodology is applicable on the project scale as well as in other countries where similar data are collected.

AB - Drained organic soils are large sources of anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHG) in many European and Asian countries. Therefore, these soils urgently need to be considered and adequately accounted for when attempting to decrease emissions from the Agriculture and Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sectors. Here, we describe the methodology, data and results of the German approach for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of anthropogenic GHG emissions from drained organic soils and outline ways forward towards tracking drainage and rewetting. The methodology was developed for and is currently applied in the German GHG inventory under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol. Spatial activity data comprise high resolution maps of land-use, type of organic soil and mean annual water table (WT). The WT map was derived by a boosted regression trees model from data of more than 1000 dipwells. Emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) were synthesized from a unique national data set comprising more than 250 annual GHG balances from 118 sites in most land-use categories and types of organic soils. Measurements were performed with harmonized protocols using manual chambers. Non-linear response functions describe the dependency of CO2 and CH4 fluxes on mean annual WT, stratified by land-use where appropriate. Modelling results were aggregated into “implied emission factors” for each land-use category, taking into account the uncertainty of the response functions, the frequency distribution of the WT within each land-use category and further GHG sources such as dissolved organic carbon or CH4 emissions from ditches. IPCC default emission factors were used for these minor GHG sources. In future, response functions could be applied directly when appropriate WT data is available. As no functional relationship was found for N2O emissions, emission factors were calculated as the mean observed flux per land-use category. In Germany, drained organic soils emit more than 55 million tons of GHGs per year, of which 91% are CO2. This is equivalent to around 6.6% of the national GHG emissions in 2014. Thus, they are the largest GHG source from agriculture and LULUCF. The described methodology is applicable on the project scale as well as in other countries where similar data are collected.

KW - Drainage

KW - Greenhouse gases

KW - MRV

KW - Peatland

KW - Rewetting, mitigation measures

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073955544&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105838

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105838

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85073955544

VL - 109

JO - Ecological indicators

JF - Ecological indicators

SN - 1470-160X

M1 - 105838

ER -