Disproportional high contribution of ditches to landscape greenhouse gas emissions in drained peatlands

Abstract

Here, we conducted monthly field campaigns in five ditches in two agricultural polders in the Netherlands, measuring carbon dioxide (CO2), diffusive and ebullitive methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. We compared these ditch emissions to landscape-scale emissions obtained via eddy covariance (EC) measurements during the same period and explored the primary drivers and spatial variation of ditch GHG emission.