Quantifizierung der Kohlenstoffumsetzungsprozesse im System Pflanze — Niedermoor: Einfluß von Pflanzenart und Bodenvernässung

Abstract

In the case of rewetted peatlands, knowledge about the turnover of plant derived carbon as an important part of the carbon cycle in soils is very incomplete. Unfortunately, by means of field methods like the litterbag approach generally used for this purpose, it is only possible to estimate the decomposition rate of plant and root material in the peat body itself. To get more information about fate of the plant-derived carbon, we examined the suitability of alternative laboratory methods based on different CO₂ gas flux measurement systems and the ¹⁴C tracer technique. For this purpose, incubation experiments with root material of the fen plant species Phragmites australis and Typha latifolia under various moisture conditions werde conducted. The results show that it is possible, particularly by means of the combination of ¹⁴C tracer technique and CO₂ gas flux measurement, to quantify exactly those amounts of the root derived carbon both remained in the soil and emitted into the atmosphere during the decomposition process.