Carbon and Nutrients Accumulation in Various Types of Wetlands in the Czech Republic

Jan Vymazal^1*, Christopher Craft² and Lenka Kröpfelová³

(¹Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Environmental Studies, Kamýcká 129, 16521 Praha 6, Czech Republic; ²School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405-2100, U.S.A.; ³ENKI, o.p.s., Dukelská 145, 37901 Třeboň, Czech Republic, *vymazal@yahoo.com)

The objective of this study was to determine soil accretion rates and accumulation rates of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in various types of wetlands. The wetlands selected for this study were two peat bogs, two floodplains and two wet meadows in south Bohemia. The study was carried out during the period 2009-2012.

Two soil cores were taken at each study site. The cores were 70 to 100 cm deep and were sectioned into 2 cm depth intervals. The increments were air-dried, weighed for bulk density, and ground to pass a 2-mm mesh sieve. The accretion rates were estimated by measuring radioactive cesium-137 in soil depth increments. The ¹³⁷Cs maximum in the soil profile corresponds to the soil surface in about 1964 and accumulation of soil above this maximum represents the net accretion of soil until the time of sampling. Depth increments were analysed for total nitrogen and phosphorus and organic carbon. At all six sites chemistry of pore water and water depth were regularly measured throughout the study.

The bulk density was the lowest in the bogs and varied between 0.02 and 0.15 g cm^-3. The bulk densities in wet meadows and floodplains were similar and varied with depth between 0.2 and 0.5 g cm^-3. Soil accretion rate was the highest in peat bogs (average of 2.40 mm yr^-1), followed by wet meadows (average of 0.90 mm yr^-1) and floodplains (0.60 mm yr^-1). Carbon concentrations in top 20 cm layer averaged 51%, 24% and 13% for bogs, wet meadows and floodplains. The respective nitrogen average concentration averaged 1.3%, 1.5% and 1.04% and phosphorus concentrations averaged 395 mg kg^-1, 1422 mg kg^-1 and 1086 mg kg^-1.

The accumulation rates varied widely among surveyed wetlands (11 – 175 g C m^-2 yr^-1). The average accumulation rates for carbon were 34, 86 and 100 g C m^-2 yr^-1 for wet meadows, floodplains and peat bogs. The respective average values for nitrogen and phosphorus were 3.8, 6.7 and 2.4 g N m^-2 yr^-1 and 0.26, 0.89 and 0.04 g P m^-2 yr^-1.

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