Department of Earth Sciences, Science Laboratories, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK.
Sci Total Environ. 2009 Dec 15;408(1):26-36. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2009.09.022. Epub 2009 Oct 9.
Upland peat soils represent a large terrestrial carbon store and as such have the potential to be either an ongoing net sink of carbon or a significant net source of carbon. In the UK many upland peats are managed for a range of purposes but these purposes have rarely included carbon stewardship. However, there is now an opportunity to consider whether management practices could be altered to enhance storage of carbon in upland peats. Further, there are now voluntary and regulated carbon trading schemes operational throughout Europe that mean stored carbon, if verified, could have an economic and tradeable value. This means that new income streams could become available for upland management. The 'Sustainable Uplands' RELU project has developed a model for calculating carbon fluxes from peat soils that covers all carbon uptake and release pathways (e.g. fluvial and gaseous pathways). The model has been developed so that the impact of common management options within UK upland peats can be considered. The model was run for a decade from 1997-2006 and applied to an area of 550 km2 of upland peat soils in the Peak District. The study estimates that the region is presently a net sink of -62 ktonnes CO2 equivalent at an average export of -136 tonnes CO2 equivalent/km2/yr. If management interventions were targeted across the area the total sink could increase to -160 ktonnes CO2/yr at an average export of -219 tonnes CO2 equivalent/km2/yr. However, not all interventions resulted in a benefit; some resulted in increased losses of CO2 equivalents. Given present costs of peatland restoration and value of carbon offsets, the study suggests that 51% of those areas, where a carbon benefit was estimated by modelling for targeted action of management interventions, would show a profit from carbon offsetting within 30 years. However, this percentage is very dependent upon the price of carbon used.
旱地泥炭土是陆地碳库的重要组成部分，具有成为碳汇或碳源的潜力。在英国，许多旱地泥炭土被用于多种目的，但这些目的很少包括碳管理。然而，现在有机会考虑是否可以改变管理实践，以增强旱地泥炭土的碳储存。此外，目前在整个欧洲都有自愿和监管的碳交易计划在运作，这意味着如果经过验证，储存的碳可能具有经济和交易价值。这意味着新的收入来源可能会为旱地管理提供。“可持续高地” RELU 项目开发了一种计算泥炭土壤碳通量的模型，涵盖了所有的碳吸收和释放途径（如河流和气体途径）。该模型旨在考虑英国旱地泥炭土中常见管理选项的影响。该模型从 1997 年至 2006 年运行了十年，并应用于皮克区 550 平方公里的旱地泥炭土。该研究估计，该地区目前的平均碳汇为-62 千吨二氧化碳当量，出口量为-136 吨二氧化碳当量/平方公里/年。如果在整个地区采取管理干预措施，总碳汇可能增加到-160 千吨二氧化碳当量/年，出口量为-219 吨二氧化碳当量/平方公里/年。然而，并非所有干预措施都带来了好处；有些干预措施导致二氧化碳当量的损失增加。考虑到泥炭地恢复的现有成本和碳抵消的价值，该研究表明，在建模为管理干预措施的目标行动估计有碳收益的 51%的那些地区，在 30 年内从碳抵消中获得的收益将超过成本。然而，这一比例非常依赖于所使用的碳价格。
