PI: Dr. Bernhard Ahrens

Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry

Peatlands contain a large share of the total terrestrial soil C reservoir, and the dynamics caused by drainage and rewetting have important implications for GHG emissions. Understanding underlying processes and their representation in soil and ecosystem models is therefore crucial for their climate-smart management and for predicting GHG emissions under changing management and climate. A7 will develop a process-based modeling and data assimilation framework based on the soil profile model COMISSION to identify the relative importance of different mechanisms for peat decomposition and formation. Besides CO2 production, we will also model the production and consumption of the GHG CH4 and N2O, taking into account the availability of oxygen and other terminal electron acceptors at different peat depths. This will be achieved by model-data comparison and integration with data from the mesocosm experiment MCExp rewetted peat, Screening Sites, and Core Sites (A2, A4, A5, A6, B1, S2).