Peat Moorlands Storing Greenhouse Gases
31.01.2007 - Other
Wet peat moorlands form a sustainable storage place for the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, but are also a source of the much stronger greenhouse gas methane. Up until now it was not clear how peat moorland areas influenced the greenhouse effect. According to Dutch researcher Wiebe Borren, peat moorlands act as greenhouse gases storages under the present climatic conditions.
Borren investigated the carbon exchange between West-Siberian peat moorlands and the atmosphere. He calculated the changes in the atmospheric supplies of carbon dioxide and methane using a 3D-model based on exchange fluxes due to peat formation over the past 9,000 years. The results revealed that from the Holocene up until now, peat moorlands have counteracted the greenhouse effect by functioning as a net storage place for greenhouse gasses; more CO2 is stored than methane released, even if the stronger greenhouse effect of methane is accounted for.
If global warming and the northward shift of bioclimate zones continue, however, then the peat moorlands will enhance the greenhouse effect says Borren. After about 250 years this effect will once again be reversed, as the increase in carbon dioxide uptake will then be greater than the increase in methane emissions.
