Farming on organic (peat) soil Lea Appulo Policy and advocacy - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Farming on organic (peat) soil Lea Appulo Policy and advocacy Officer on Climate and DRR Wetlands International Peat soils: Lands with a peat layer at the surface Peat has accumulated when the soil was permanently waterlogged and dead
Lea Appulo
Policy and advocacy Officer on Climate and DRR Wetlands International
Peat soils:
Lands with a peat layer at the surface
accumulated when the soil was permanently waterlogged and dead plant remains did not completely decompose
large proportion
Van de Riet et al. 2014
Van de Riet et al. 2014
Van de Riet et al. 2014
Conventional peatland use Couwenberg et al. in prep./GMC emission database
Tanneberger et al. (2017)
‚Organic soil‘ definition after IPCC: Lands with a peat layer at the surface.
Tanneberger et al. (2017)
26 % 21 % 4% % of the national land area
Tanneberger et al. (2017)
61 % 82 % 98 % % drained of total organic soil
Peatlands are not recognized: the Cinderella syndrome
China
Paradigm over millenia: Productive land must be dry…
Iceland
…and agricultural soils must be repeatedly moved.
Germany
Assumptions that we apply, for example, by cultivating semi-arid maize on drained peatland
Germany
Because of the CO2 from the peat, ‘biogas’ from maize on peat causes 8x more climate damage per joule energy than burning lignite…
Drainage-based land use on peatlands should be phase out
Drained peat Wet peat
Van de Riet et al. 2014
Drained peat Wet peat Wet peat
Van de Riet et al. 2014
Peatland rewetting Emission reduction
Conventional peatland use Paludiculture Couwenberg et al. in prep./GMC emission database
→ peat is preserved at groundwater tables close to soil surface
‚palus‘ → Latin for swamp ‚culture‘ → agriculture or forestry Paludiculture is the productive use of wet peatlands. First used by Joosten (1998)
Plants that can be grown under permanently wet conditions and supply usable above-ground biomass without detriment to the peat body and its carbon reservoir. → ~300 plant species with good potential in Europe
GMC Database of Potential Paludiculture Plants (DPPP)
Wet meadows/ pastures Cropping paludicultures
Foto: A. Schäfer
Sedges (Carex spp.) – wet meadows Productivity: 3-12 t DM/ha/yr
→ for energy (combustion, biogas), fodder
Water buffalo – wet pastures Productivity: 840 g/day/calf
→ for beef production, habitat management
Common Reed (Phragmites australis) productivity: 3 – >25 t DM/ha/yr
→ for construction material, energy
Wichmann & Köbbing (2015)
Demand in EU: ca. 15 Mio bundles per year → import rate c. 80%
Cattail (Typha spp.) Productivity : 5-22 t DM/ha/yr
→ for construction materials, insulation, fodder
Alder (Alnus glutinosa) Productivity: 3-10 t DM/ha/yr
→ for furniture
Peatmosses (Sphagnum spp.) Productivity: 2-9 t DM/ha/yr
Initial state → site preparation + seeding
May 2011
→ established culture
November 2011
→ for horticultural substrate (similar properties like peat)
Wet meadows/pastures: Demonstration sites in several countries (often within nature conservation schemes) Cropping paludicultures: Pilot sites in UK, NL, DE (research projects) On rewetted peatland: < 2 km2