Rewetting Decreases Carbon Emissions from the Zoige Alpine Peatland on the Tibetan Plateau

Lijuan Cui, Xiaoming Kang, Wei Li, Yanbin Hao, Yuan Zhang, Jinzhi Wang, Liang Yan, Xiaodong Zhang, Manyin Zhang, Jian Zhou and Paul Kardol
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Lijuan Cui: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Xiaoming Kang: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Wei Li: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Yanbin Hao: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Yuan Zhang: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Jinzhi Wang: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Liang Yan: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Xiaodong Zhang: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Manyin Zhang: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Jian Zhou: Beijing Key Laboratory of Wetland Services and Restoration, Institute of Wetland Research, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Paul Kardol: Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 90183 Umeå, Sweden

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Peatlands play an important role in the global carbon cycle and potentially have a significant impact on regional climate change. Restoring and rewetting the degraded peatlands is an urgent task. However, effects of rewetting on the carbon emissions of peatlands remain poorly understood. In this study, the process of rewetting a piece of the degraded Zoige alpine peatland was experimentally simulated and the derived results were compared with those of natural rewetting by monitoring CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes and other environmental factors before and after rewetting. The natural rewetting results showed that rewetting decreased ecosystem respiration (ER) by about 60%. Furthermore, rewetting increased CH 4 emissions by 127%, decreased total carbon emissions (TCE) from 270 to 157 mg CO 2 m −2 h −1 , and decreased TCE from the entire ecosystem by 42%. The results of the controlled experiment showed that ER decreased gradually as the degree of rewetting was increased, and CH 4 fluxes and changes in water level were significantly and positively correlated: CH 4 fluxes increased from 0.3 (water level −20 cm) to 2.17 mg CH 4 m −2 h −1 (water level 20 cm). After rewetting, the TCE of the whole ecosystem were significantly decreased. Regional observations showed that CO 2 fluxes were significantly and negatively correlated to the water level; and the corresponding CO 2 equivalent was significantly and positively correlated to the water level, while TCE were significantly and negatively correlated to the water level. Our findings indicate that rewetting can decrease carbon emissions and thus contribute in mitigating the adverse effects of climate change in alpine peatland.

Keywords: carbon budget; greenhouse gas emission; peatland; rewetting; water level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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