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Project title

Process&Policy - A Mechanistic simulation of Carbon GHG Dynamics&Inventories in Irish Upland Mire Dominated Catchments

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT)

Lead Applicant

n/a

Project Abstract

Peatlands cover approximately 11,757 Km2 of Ireland and represent a major carbon store � of this nearly half 4,350 km2 is represented by upland blanket peatlands (Hammond, 1981). Accelerated carbon losses from this land type will have serious consequences for the natural carbon store and its associated impacts on climate change in Ireland. Recent studies have shown an increase in carbon leaking from peat soils and forested stream systems in the uplands compared to the 1990s (Feeley et al., 2013). This coupled with highly variable and poorly quantified gaseous carbon fluxes from the blanket peatland dominated soils of catchments suggests that the true losses of carbon from this land-use type are poorly understood. The atmospheric diffusion of carbon and carbon cycle disturbances associated with water-land management practices are of particular importance to Ireland which is committed to the promotion of natural carbon sequestration under its Kyoto Protocol-EU obligations and to maximising the carbon sequestration capacity of land-use, land-use change and forestry management (Decision No 406/2009/EC; Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act, 2015). Optimal carbon management of this resource requires a more detailed assessment of carbon dynamics in this extensive land type. The output of this study will be the development of a spatially referenced mechanistic based account of carbon production, transport and evasion in Irish upland blanket peatlands.

Grant Approved

�90,000.00

Research Hub

n/a

Research Theme

Carbon Stocks, GHG Emissions, Sinks and Management Options

Start Date

01/01/2017

Initial Projected Completion Date

30/09/2020