Authors: Lena Schaller Jochen Kantelhardt Matthias Drösler
Publish Date: 2011/05/17
Volume: 674, Issue: 1, Pages: 91-104
Abstract
About 30 of the world’s soil carbon is stored in peat soils Peat land’s functional principle of carbon storage greatly depends on management strategies Therefore agricultural peat land use becomes a focal point of interest in the current debate on climate protection Agricultural management demands a drawdown of the waterlevel that causes degradation of the soils as well as tracegas emissions which have a negative impact on greenhousegas balance Climatefriendly peat land management strategies however demand enhanced groundwater tables and decreased landuse intensity Against this background we analyse ways of reorganising agricultural peat land use within a case study located in Germany where intensive peat land use accounts for 23–51 of the country’s overall greenhousegas emission The study takes place in six regions which represent all possible socioeconomic and natural conditions with regard to the range of existing peat land types range of management and cultivation types as well as the range of landuse intensity To analyse potentials and effects of reorganising peat land use stakeholder workshops and extensive farm surveys were carried out The results indicate that reservations exist as regards a reorganisation of peat land management Financial compensation for farmers appears necessary The results also show that the potential of rearrangement throughout the regions varies significantly mainly according to the existing level of interconnection and cooperation between local stakeholders the technical feasibility of restoration and water logging and the level of agricultural profitability of peat land cultivation with regard to income capital commitment and the share of affected peat land area
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