Calculation of Carbon Fluxes from peatlands
During the Care-Peat project, one goal is to estimate GHG fluxes emitted by peatlands. For tackling this challenge, developments are in progress about a numerical model able to calculate carbon fluxes. The code uses relevant data collected on pilot sites such as thickness of the unsaturated zone (or depth of water table) obtained from piezometers, soil and air temperatures, precipitation, radiations measured by weather station, water content in the unsaturated zone and soil properties like porosity of peat.
All these data allow estimating first evapotranspiration and recharge data, which are then used to calculate variations of soil water content according to time and carbon fluxes related to hydrological conditions. Calculated fluxes data are consistent with measured data obtained from the Eddy-covariance tower during the winter period. The next step consists to introduce in the model vegetation or proxies especially for simulating fluxes during the summer time. The model was initially applied to La Guette site (FR) and next calculations will be soon performed on other sites of the CARE-PEAT project.