Climate smart use of Norwegian organic soils

Torvmark er sentrale økosystemer for å redusere klimagassutslipp fra norsk landbrukssektor. MYR-prosjektet utforsker potensialet med forhøyede vann nivå i dyrkede torvmarker, for å redusere utslipp av drivhusgasser. Mer spesifikt vil MYR gi verktøy for å støtte beslutningstaking i Norge. Disse verktøyene vil være basert på bakkesannhet, dvs. data samlet fra ulike organiske jordsystemer) og avkastningsmodeller for å hjelpe interessenter med å utvikle bærekraftige retningslinjer for organisk jord. Vi har utført en bred datainnsamling fra Nord-Europa, og forskjellige modeller som skal brukes til å estimere klimagassutslipp under forskjellige forvaltningsalternativer er kalibrert for organiske jordarter ved hjelp av disse dataene. Feltmålinger for hydrologi og agrologi er videreført og målinger av klimagassutslipp er startet på prosjektstudier. Første modellresultater viser at å heve vannet ved dyrket torvmark er sentralt i å redusere klimagassutslipp.

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MYR will investigate management practises of Norwegian organic soils, with a specific scope on how significant reductions in GHG (CO2, CH4, N2O) emissions can be achieved by 2030/2050. Specifically, we will investigate: 1) GHG savings from grasslands, which is the main land use of organic soils in Norway, with hydrological regulation (i.e. elevated water table). 2) The potential of plant species selection in mitigating GHG emissions and in sustaining food production under elevated water table. 3) GHG reductions and biodiversity impacts of restoration of abandoned organic soils. We will further provide tools to support decision making, specifically for Norway, based on ground truth (data collected from various organic soil systems) and yield models, exploiting newly generated experimental data, combined to a comprehensive simplified model with metamodeling approach, to help stakeholders with developing sustainable policies for organic soils. We aim at synthesizing the current knowledge on management practises from Norwegian and Northern European organic soils with regards to GHG emissions, food production and socio-economic aspects by integrating MYR with on-going Norwegian research projects on organic soils and with the ERA-GAS project (PeatWise) coordinated by NIBIO. In order to secure maximum national outreach, MYR is designed and will be executed in close collaboration with the NIBIO team reporting emissions to UNFCCC national inventory and the projects stakeholder board, which consists of representatives from Agricultural and Environmental Agencies, regional policy makers (Fylkesmannen) and farmers organizations.