REED CANARY GRASS CULTIVATION ON CUT-AWAY PEATLANDS AND THE ECOSYSTEM CARBON BALANCE

摘要

Peat production areas act as a source of carbon dioxide (CO_2) to the atmosphere due to the absence of photosynthesizing vegetation and predominance of peat decomposition. A potential measure to mitigate CO_2 emissions from cut-away peatlands is their use for cultivation of bioenergy crops, such as reed canary grass. Although the produced plant biomass can offset fossil fuels in energy production, actual greenhouse gas balances of bioenergy cultivations are poorly known. We report in this paper an estimate of the carbon (C) balance of reed canary grass cultivations on cut-away peatlands and our observations on the uncertainty of the estimate.