🌍 Fieldwork Update: Soil–Atmosphere Greenhouse Gas Exchange in Polish Floodplains
Our field campaign continues at full intensity. Following our recent visit to the floodplains near Vienna, we moved on to our Polish research sites to carry out a new round of soil–atmosphere GHG flux measurements and equipment maintenance.
During the visit, we:
- – Checked the performance of our automated flux chambers
- – Downloaded data and exchanged sensors
- – Collected greenhouse gas (GHG) concentration profiles from the vertical soil column
- – Conducted manual soil flux measurements using the LI-COR 7810 GHG analyzer, complementing our aquatic GHG data
Despite some rainfall during the campaign, water levels in rivers remain critically low, and floodplain soils are unusually dry. Preliminary results from our measurements indicate that, under these conditions, floodplain soils are acting as a sink for methane (CH₄). This behavior is likely linked to enhanced oxygen penetration and reduced anaerobic zones due to low soil moisture.
The terrain posed logistical challenges, with dense reedbeds and difficult access to our sites, but after three intense days in the field, our team successfully completed all planned activities. 💪
Stay tuned as we begin to process and interpret this valuable dataset as part of the FluxFlood project, aimed at understanding the role of river-floodplain systems in regional greenhouse gas budgets.
