Investigation of Carbon-Dioxide-Emissions from Underutilized Grassland between 2019 and 2020

Abstract

Climate change-induced extreme changes are making phytomass yields of extensive grasslands in continental areas increasingly dependent on the season. This situation is exacerbated, inter alia, by the decline in grazing livestock production due to a lack of quality labour, and thus by an increase in the proportion of unused or under-utilised grassland. In our experiments, we have refined the effects of a decade of unused/abandonment, mulch, mowing and meadow utilisation on carbon emissions, soil moisture and soil temperature during two different types of years. We found that unused/abandonment grassland with accumulated duff in the absence of utilization had the highest carbon dioxide emission values in different years, even at lower soil moisture values. Our results confirm the fact that fallow grasslands can be considered a source of risk due to their increased greenhouse gas emissions.