Abstract
Abstract. A significant proportion of the global carbon emissions to the atmosphere originate from agriculture. Therefore, continuous long-term monitoring of CO2 fluxes is essential to understand the carbon dynamics and balances of different agricultural sites. Here we present results from a new eddy covariance flux measurement site located in southern Finland. We measured CO2 and H2O fluxes at this agricultural grassland site for 2 years, from May 2018 to May 2020. In particular the first summer experienced prolonged dry periods, which affected the CO2 fluxes, and substantially larger fluxes were observed in the second summer. During the dry summer, leaf area index (LAI) was notably lower than in the second summer. Water use efficiency increased with LAI in a similar manner in both years, but photosynthetic capacity per leaf area was lower during the dry summer. The annual carbon balance was calculated based on the CO2 fluxes and management measures, which included input of carbon as organic fertilizers and output as yield. The carbon balance of the field was −57 ± 10 and −86 ± 12 g C m−2 yr−1 in the first and second study years, respectively.
Highlights
Conventional and intensive agricultural practices cause significant carbon emissions while diminishing the soil organic matter (SOM) content
The annual mean air temperature at the study site was 7.6 and 7.7 ◦C in the first and second measurement years, respectively. Both years were warm compared to the long-term (1981–2010) average of 5.4 ◦C measured at a nearby weather station (Pirinen et al, 2012)
When CO2 fluxes and carbon fluxes caused by management activities were solely accounted for, the soil carbon storage was assumed to have increased by 0.3 % and 0.5 % in 2018 and 2019, respectively, indicating that northern agricultural grasslands have a potential to contribute to climate change mitigation
Summary
Conventional and intensive agricultural practices cause significant carbon emissions while diminishing the soil organic matter (SOM) content. This leads to a reduction of soil quality and health A change from conventional and intensive agricultural practices to regenerative and holistic farm management provides a substantial climate change mitigation potential (Lal, 2016). In particular managed grasslands as part of agricultural systems have a high potential for substantial soil carbon sequestration (Soussana et al, 2010; Gilmanov et al, 2010; Yang et al, 2019). The importance of increasing soil organic carbon (SOC) content of agricultural soils has recently attained more attention, and the “4 per mille Soils for Food Security and Climate” initiative was launched at the Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union
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