Authors:
Sakari Sarkkola, Hannu Hökkä, Mika Nieminen, Harri Koivusalo, Ari Laurén, Erkki Ahti, Samuli Launiainen, Hannu Marttila & Jukka Laine
Book:
Proceedings of the 14th International Peat Congress
Venue:
Stockholm
Keywords:
drainage, evapotranspiration, peatland, pinus-sylvestris, runoff
Summary:
Theme VII. Ecology and management on forested peatlands
SUMMARY
We estimated evapotranspiration of forest vegetation during the growing seasons of 2007-2011 based on hydrological measurements in four forested artificial peatland catchments (isolated from the surroundings by double-ditching). The catchments were dominated by Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) with growing stand volumes between 93 and 151 m3 ha-1 and were located under different climatic conditions either in southern, western, central, or northern Finland.
The estimated growing season evapotranspiration varied between 49-161% of the total precipitation sum (155-368 mm), decreased from south to north, and was highest in July or August.
The results showed that in the studied forests, a significant part of total precipitation during growing season is lost back to atmosphere by forest evapotranspiration, especially in southern and western Finland. Under these conditions, stand water use dominates the water balance, and no management of the drainage network is needed to maintain favourable drainage conditions for the tree stand growth.