Hirano Takashi
Hokkaido University

Peatlands have become of major interest recently in terms of the global warming because they accumulate huge amount of carbon as soil organic matter under anoxic conditions. However, land-use change through development, which is progressing worldwide, accompanies drainage, and consequently lowers groundwater level in peatlands. It is well know that local hydrology is very important to determine the carbon balance of peatlands. Lowered groundwater level enhances aerobic peat decomposition. Therefore, a huge carbon pool in peatlands is now vulnerable. Peatlands have the potential to switch to be a large carbon source to the atmosphere.
In order to assess hydrology and investigate its variability, we had measured evapotranspiration or latent heat flux by the eddy covariance technique over two petlands with different dominant species (sphagnum and dwarf bamboo (Sasa)) in Sarobetsu Mire, northern Hokkaido, Japan. We compared evapotranspiration between the two peatlands using the data of four growing seasons.