Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 4 3 2007 10.5194/bg-4-411-2007 http://www.biogeosciences.net/4/411/2007/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/4/411/2007/bg-4-411-2007.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/4/411/2007/bg-4-411-2007.pdf 411 424 2007-06-27 The full greenhouse gas balance of an abandoned peat meadow D. M. D. Hendriks dimmie.hendriks@falw.vu.nl J. van Huissteden A. J. Dolman M. K. van der Molen Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Department of Hydrology and Geo-environmental Sciences, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands Globally, peat lands are considered to be a sink of CO2, but a source when drained. Additionally, wet peat lands are thought to emit considerable amounts of CH4 and N2O. Hitherto, reliable and integrated estimates of emissions and emission factors for this type of land cover have been lacking and the effects of wetland restoration on methane emissions have been poorly quantified. In this paper we estimate the full greenhouse gas (GHG) balance of a restored natural peat land by determining the fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O through atmosphere and water, while accounting for the different Global Warming Potentials (GWP's). The site is an abandoned agricultural peat meadow, which has been converted into a wetland nature reserve ten years ago, after which the water level was raised. GHG fluxes were measured continuously with an eddy covariance system (CO2) and flux chamber measurements (CH4 and N2O). Meteorological and hydrological measurements were collected as well. With growing seasons of respectively 192, 168 and 129 days, the annual net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) was −446+±83 g C m−2 yr−1 for 2004, −311±58 g C m−2 yr−1 for 2005 and −232±57 g m−2 yr−1 for 2006. Ecosystem respiration (Reco) was estimated as 869±668 g C m−2 yr−1 for 2004, 866±666 g C m−2 yr−1 for 2005 and 924±711 g C m−2 yr−1 for 2006. 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