CO2 fluxes from drained and rewetted peatlands using a new ECOSSE model water table simulation approach

Alina Premrov; David Wilson; Matthew Saunders; Jagadeesh Yeluripati; Florence Renou-Wilson

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142433

CO₂ fluxes from drained and rewetted peatlands using a new ECOSSE model water table simulation approach

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 1:754:142433. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142433. Epub 2020 Sep 21.

Authors

Alina Premrov¹, David Wilson², Matthew Saunders³, Jagadeesh Yeluripati⁴, Florence Renou-Wilson⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Biology & Environmental Sciences, University College Dublin, Ireland; Botany Department, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: premrova@ucd.ie.
² Earthy Matters Environmental Consultants, Donegal, Ireland.
³ Botany Department, School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
⁴ Information and Computational Sciences Department, The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK.
⁵ School of Biology & Environmental Sciences, University College Dublin, Ireland.

PMID: 33254846
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142433

Abstract

The ability of peatlands to remove and store atmospheric carbon (C) depends on the drainage characteristics, which can be challenging to accommodate in biogeochemical models. Many studies indicate that restoration (by rewetting) of damaged peatlands can re-establish their capacity as a natural C sink. The purpose of this research was to improve the biogeochemical modelling of peatlands using the ECOSSE process-based model, which will account for the effects of drainage and rewetting during simulation, and potentially contribute towards improved estimation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) fluxes from peatlands, using the IPCC Tier 3 approach. In this study, we present a new drainage factor with seasonal variability Dfa (i) developed specifically for ECOSSE, using empirical data from two drained and rewetted Irish peatlands. Dfa(i) was developed from the Blackwater drained bare-peat site (BWdr), and its application was tested at the vegetated Moyarwood peatland site under drained (MOdr) and rewetted conditions (MOrw). Dfa(i) was applied to the rainfall model inputs for the periods of active drainage in conjunction with the measured water table (WT) inputs. The results indicate that Dfa(i) application can improve the model performance to predict model-estimated water level (WL) and CO₂ fluxes under drained conditions [WL: r² = 0.89 (BWdr) and 0.94 (Modr); CO₂: r² = 0.66 (BWdr) and 0.78 (MOdr)] along with model-ability to capture their seasonal trends. The prediction of WL for the rewetted period was less successful at the MOrw site, where the simulation was run for drained to rewetted, which would suggest that additional work on the water model component is still needed. Despite this, the application of Dfa(i) showed successful model simulation of CO₂ fluxes at MOrw (r² = 0.75) and model ability to capture seasonal trends. This work hopes to positively contribute towards potential future development of Tier 3 methodology for estimating emissions/sinks in peatlands.

Keywords: Biogeochemical process-based modelling; Drainage factor; ECOSSE model; Modelling CO(2); Rewetted drained peatlands; Water-table.