Latvian Council of Science agreement No. lzp-2021/1-0137
Organic soils is one of the largest sources of GHG emissions in Latvia. According to the latest National inventory report GHG emissions from organic soils in forest land in 2019 were 1.6 mill. tons of CO2 eq. (14% of GHG emissions in Latvia, excluding land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector). The inventory do not include yet GHG emissions from surface of tree stems, which according to recent studies can significantly increase the total GHG emissions in areas with wet soils and fluctuating groundwater level.
The aim of the Study is to evaluate GHG emissions from the tree stems and to quantify impact of groundwater level changes and other factors affecting these emissions in order to provide to foresters decision support tools for implementation of climate change mitigation measures in forest stands with drained and wet soils.
Project tasks
- adaptation of methods, selection and setting up of research plots;
- measurement of GHG fluxes from tree stems, groundwater level and other environmental data;
- analysis of results and development of equations for assessment of GHG fluxes;
- elaboration of methods for acquisition of activity data for GHG modelling;
- implementation of the developed equations in the AGM forest growth model. Project results will be published in at least three WoS or SCOPUS indexed publications and presented in at least 2 international scientific conferences. Measurement data will be published in Open data portal of Latvia.