Greenhouse gas fluxes from drained organic forestland in Sweden

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate the contribution of drained organic forestlands in Sweden to the national greenhouse gas budget. Drained organic forestland in Sweden collectively comprises an estimated net sink for greenhouse gases of −5.0 Mt carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalents year⁻¹ (range −12.0 to 1.2) when default emission factors provided by the Good practice guidance for land use, land-use change and forestry are used, and an estimated net source of 0.8 Mt CO₂ equivalents year⁻¹ (range −6.7 to 5.1) when available emission data for the climatic zones spanned by Sweden are used. This discrepancy is mainly due to differences in the emission factors for heterotrophic respiration. The main uncertainties in the estimates are related to carbon changes in the litter pool and releases of soil CO₂ and nitrous oxide.

Keywords:

• Carbon dioxide
• good practice guidance
• greenhouse gas budget
• methane
• nitrous oxide
• peat
• scaling

This work formed part of the “Land use strategies for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions” project, supported by the Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (MISTRA) and part of the “Emission from drained forest soils” project, supported by the Swedish Energy Agency.