Measurements of CO2 fluxes using eddy covariance method over Rzecin wetland and Tuczno forest in Poland

The practice of carbon dioxide fluxes measurements using eddy covariance method has been relatively new in Poland. Thanks to the scholarship of the Dekaban foundation at UBC in Vancouver, in 1993, a PULS staff member had the opportunity to participate in the research studies within the framework of the BOREAS project of the Biomet Group headed by prof. Andy Black. Owing to this cooperation in the late nineties the first Polish Eddy Covariance system for the measurements of mass and energy fluxes was developed. This system was tested and calibrated at the Campbell River measuring station in Vancouver Island, and after returning back to Poland it was installed on croplands to observe CO2 and H2O fluxes over corn, rape, wheat and bare soil. In 2003 the PULS team took the efforts aiming at the joining to the European research project Carbo Europe IP. In those days the first measuring station in Poland, over Rzecin wetland (Western Poland), was established where the fluxes of greenhouse gases and heat are measured using eddy covariance method in a continuous way. Within the framework of the CarboEurope project and a little later Nitoeurope and Greenflux projects, the station measurement systems have been developed by introducing also new measurement techniques such as the chambers and the Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA) over the years. The range of gases fluxes research has also been expanded and at present this station measures the gas fluxes of H2O, CO2 and methane as well as of nitrogen compounds. Currently, the data from station in Rzecin are entered into the database of the new research project of the European Union - GHG-Europe. Simultaneously, next to the research on the wetland station, thanks to The State Forests National Forest Holding support, the second measuring station in Poland was established in 2008. There are the H2O, CO2 and heat fluxes are measured by using eddy covariance technique over the 52 years old pine afforestation in Tuczno (Western Poland). This paper, in addition to providing the historical outline of the PULS and UBC cooperation, presents also the methodology and results of several years of carbon dioxide exchange research over wetland and forest in Poland. The values of the CO2 fluxes over the peat-bog in Rzecin have been related to the meteorological conditions, as well as to the soil water contents in each year of measurements. The paper puts particular emphasis on the new techniques of measurements of various parameters, and the final section presents the plans for the development of two measuring stations, and their integration into the pan-European greenhouse gases monitoring network. Also the first steps of building a new station measuring greenhouse gas fluxes on the agricultural areas in the context of manipulation experiments have been outlined, particularly regarding such changes as the land use and the agricultural technology. A new prototype system of automated chambers for CO2, methane and nitrous oxide fluxes measurements has been described. This paper demonstrates a significant impact of prof. Andy Black and his team on the micrometeorological research conducted in Poland.