Soil CO2 emissions from a rubber plantation on tropical peat during a strong El Niño year

Abstract

El Niño event potentially enhances the soil CO2 emissions due to the prolonged of the dry season which lowers the groundwater level more. However, field information on the effect of the El Niño years on the soil respiration is limited in Indonesia’s peatlands. The aim of this study is to compare the soil respiration between normal and El Niño years. We measured soil CO2 efflux using a closed chamber system monthly, in near and far positions from rubber trees, on the dry season from July to October, in normal year of 2014 and strong El Niño year of 2015, on a rubber plantation established on peat soil. No significant relationship was found between soil respiration with groundwater level or soil temperature. We found that soil respiration in the strong El Niño year of 2015 of 9.56 μ mol m−2 s−1 was significantly larger than that in the normal year of 2014 at 5.11 μ mol m−2 s−1. We expected this finding can be used as the first baseline information regarding soil CO2 emissions under different climatic conditions and challenging how to manage the peatland for mitigating high soil CO2 emissions during El Niño events.