Impact of 40 Years of Poplar Cultivation on Soil Quality and Soil Greenhouse Gas Fluxes

Greenhouse gas fluxes from soils in Parco Ticino were monitored for two years. Results show that the pristine forest has small emissions of N2O and that soil respiration rates of the two ecosystems are in the same order of magnitude despite the fact that carbon stocks in Bosco Negri are much higher than at the poplar site. At the poplar site, we observed the absence of a litter layer and a depletion of the carbon content in the A-horizon. Nitrogen stocks are depleted as wellm but to a lesser degree leading to a C/N ratio of about 12.5. In Bosco Negri, soils exhibited a C/N ratio of about 15 (A horizon). The lower C/N ratio at the poplar site is indicative of a higher turnover rate of organic material. For the poplar site only, the greenhouse gas balance has been completed with above-canopy CO2 flux measurements using the eddy covariance technique. The results indicate that soil N2O emissions accounted for about 3% of the net CO2 uptake by photosynthesis while CH4 fluxes were negligible.

LEIP Adrian;  FERRÉ Chiara;  MERONI Michele;  PREVITALI Franco;  SEUFERT Guenther; 

2005-12-13

European Geosciences Union

JRC30771

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC30771,