Soil drainage facilitates earthworm invasion and subsequent carbon loss from peatland soil

Transient drainage from a vertical soil column

Transient drainage from a vertical soil column

The potential of responsible peatland management to reduce global soil carbon loss and greenhouse gas emissions

Peatlands represent the largest single global store of soil carbon. Despite providing a natural long-term CO2 sink, drainage and conversion to agricultural and silivicultural management of peatlands has converted them into large net contributors to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (~2.5% of all anthropogenic emissions, primarily from Europe and SE Asia). Drainage-based agriculture on peatl...

Soil physical properties, soil carbon dioxide fluxes, and soil drainage dynamics of select bioenergy cropping systems

Bioenergy cropping systems have been proposed as a way to enhance United States energy security. However, research on soil physical properties, soil-surface CO2 effluxes, and soil drainage dynamics in such systems is needed to ensure environmental sustainability in the field. The objective of our research was to evaluate soil physical properties and conditions as well as soil-surface CO2 efflux...

Estimating Annual Soil Carbon Loss in Agricultural Peatland Soils Using a Nitrogen Budget Approach

Around the world, peatland degradation and soil subsidence is occurring where these soils have been converted to agriculture. Since initial drainage in the mid-1800s, continuous farming of such soils in the California Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Delta) has led to subsidence of up to 8 meters in places, primarily due to soil organic matter (SOM) oxidation and physical compaction. Rice (Ory...