|
|
Summer fluxes of nitrous oxide from boreal forest
Macháčová, Kateřina ; Pihlatie, M. ; Halmeenmäki, E. ; Pavelka, Marian ; Dušek, Jiří ; Bäck, J. ; Urban, Otmar
Boreal forests cover almost one-third of the global forest area, and results of soil measurements show them to be a natural source of the important greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O). Nevertheless, N2O fluxes from boreal tree species have been excluded from calculations of N2O exchanges from forest ecosystems. Therefore, our objective was to quantify and scale up the N2O fluxes from stems of mature silver birch (Betula pendula), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), and Norway spruce (Picea abies), as well as from the forest floor of a boreal forest in Finland during June and July 2014. This study shows that boreal tree species emit N2O from their stems under natural field conditions and significantly contribute up to 8% of forest floor fluxes of N2O. Spruce trees seem to be the strongest N2O emitter among the studied tree species. Moreover, the N2O flux rates from both coniferous tree species increased with decreasing soil water content. This study highlights the necessity to include N2O fluxes from trees within the total greenhouse gas budget of forest ecosystems.
|
host ::
RSS.