Mechanistic understanding of the effects of land subsidence on the soil microbiome in peatlands
Peatlands are characteristic for their high organic matter content and play an important role for soil carbon sequestration. Drainage of peatlands for agricultural purposes leads to peat oxidation. During peat oxidation soil microbes break down the soil organic matter, resulting in increased greenhouse gas emissions and land subsidence.
Peatlands cover around 10% of the surface area of the Netherlands and peat oxidation contributes with 2-3% to its total greenhouse gas emission. Measures such as underwater drainage to increase water infiltration are taken to prevent land subsidence.
The goal of this project is to increase the mechanistic understanding on how measures taken against land subsidence affect the activity and composition of the soil microbial community in peatlands. Basal respiration and substrate induced respiration are measured in a number of field sites across the Netherlands, under treatment and control conditions, and bacterial community composition is determined using 16s rRNA Amplicon sequencing. Further, we aim to identify functional groups of microbes contributing to the breakdown of long-cycled carbon from the peat layers versus breakdown of short-cycled carbon from the rooting zone in the upper layer of the soil. These insights may contribute to the development and monitoring of additional measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from managed peatlands.
This project is part of NOBV (‘Nationaal onderzoeksprogramma broeikasgassen veenweiden’; https://www.nobveenweiden.nl/), a nationwide research program investigating measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands. The research is conducted by a consortium of several universities and research institutes. Its goal is to support the Netherlands in fulfilling the climate agreement to reduce yearly greenhouse gas emissions of peatland to 1,0 Mton in 2030.