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Peatland monitoring program for climate protection - forest
Project
Project code: TI-WO-08-PID2389
Contract period: 01.01.2021
- 31.05.2025
Purpose of research: Applied research
How much carbon do organic soils store? How much does the forest stand store compared to that? What thickness do the peat layers of drained peatlands still have? How do the emissions of organic soils develop? Peatland soil monitoring clarifies these questions and derives measures for climate protection.
At around 3%, peatlands account for only a small proportion of the forest area in Germany. Nevertheless, they are an important carbon sink. In the case of drained peatlands and half-bogs they are a significant source of greenhouse gases. Drained peatland soils covered with forest emit about 60% of the emissions emitted by much larger mineral arable soils in Germany. Nearly 100% of organic soils covered with forest are considered drained. The preservation of stored carbon and the increase of carbon in organic soils is of great importance for climate protection. In order to obtain accurate figures for greenhouse gas reporting, the Thünen Institute for Forest Ecosystems is establishing a nationwide peatland soil monitoring program in the forest sector. For this purpose, 50 monitoring sites are selected nationwide. The work is coordinated with the peatland soil monitoring in the open countryside, which is being implemented by the Thünen Institute for Climate-Smart Agriculture. In addition to determining the carbon storage in the soil and estimating the greenhouse gas emissions, the carbon storage in the stand is also determined in order to ensure a holistic determination of the system. Particularly in the case of heavily degraded peatlands and half-bogs, the question arises as to how large the carbon storage in the remaining peat layer is in comparison to the carbon storage of the forest stand. The results will show where a revitalization is highly recommended and where the preservation of the current stand is more reasonable.
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Production
- Climate Change
