Kenneth A Byrne

University of Limerick | UL · Department of Biological Sciences

The EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) is critical for the restoration of degraded ecosystems and active afforestation of degraded peatlands has been suggested as a restoration measure under the NRL. Here, we discuss the current state of scientific evidence on the climate mitigation effects of peatlands under forestry. Afforestation of drained peatlan...

The current food chain both contributes to, and is affected by, climate change. While GHG emissions and emissions to water and soil are a problem for the whole food chain, the majority of such emissions and the major solutions to them can be found in the farming and land use sector. The farming system needs to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions an...

Une nouvelle étude estime l’intensité d’utilisation du bois dans les bâtiments résidentiels neufs (nouvellement achevés, en cours de construction ou à construire) à partir du rapport entre la consommation apparente de bois pour la construction et la surface au sol utile des nouveaux logements dans 30 pays européens. Elle met aussi en rapport la réc...

Soil bulk density (BD) is a principal component in estimating the density of soil nutrients and elements including carbon (C). Current literature states that in soils with rock fragment (RF) content ≥3% of the total sample volume, substantial differences in estimated soil organic carbon density (SOCD) are found, depending on the soil BD calculation...

To overcome climate change and environmental degradation, the European Green Deal aims to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, without net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. In line with the new EU Circular Economy Action Plan, priority should also be placed on long term carbon storage in wood used for con...

Holznutzung im Wohngebäuden in Europa - auf dem Weg zu einer moderner, ressourceneffizienten Wirtschaft bis 2050?

In Dutch: Themanummer Hout in de Bouw. Vergelijkend onderzoek naar houtbouw in EU-27, VK, Noorwegen en Zwitserland. Samenvatting. Er wordt in Nederland steeds meer gebouwd met hout, maar in relatie tot andere landen in Europa, loopt ons land achter met houtgebruik in de bouw. Voor elke vierkante meter nieuwbouw wordt maar 0.09 kuub constructiehou...

Wood is an energy efficient, low carbon construction material that if carefully managed can contribute significantly to European climate policy goals in urban environments. The aim of this study is to assess the current construction wood use intensity ─ the ratio of apparent national consumption of wood for construction (in m3) to the useful floor...

There is an urgent need to evaluate the environmental impacts of both traditional and more recent innovations in sustainable building materials. This study conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) of a single three-storey (aboveground) terrace in Ireland composed of three timber-framed residential workplace units. The supply of raw materials, their...

Food is an essential human need underpinning health and wellbeing, while also having the potential to support environmental sustainability [...]

Forest ecosystems are recognised as Natural Climate Solutions because forest soils are such important carbon stores, containing almost half of the total soil organic carbon of terrestrial ecosystems. Here we present the results of a synthesis of soil carbon stocks by World Reference Base soil group, and forest litter carbon stocks for afforested so...

Real-time soil moisture measurements are essential to manage for adaptive dynamic management of climate change adaptation and reduction of nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and forestry. Soil moisture status influences crop growth, run-off, groundwater recharge, land surface-atmospheric exchange dynamics and greenhouse g...

Combining auxiliary variables and field inventory data of forest parameters using the model-based approach is frequently used to produce synthetic estimates for small areas. These small areas arise when it may not be financially feasible to take ground measurements or when such areas are inaccessible. Until recently, these estimates have been calcu...

This study utilized site-specific peat hydrophysical properties (inverse of air-entry pressure (α), pore size distribution index (n), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and pore tortuosity (L)) as inputs into the HYDRUS 1-D computer model for quantifying moss moisture stresses on Irish peatlands. The site-specific peat hydrophysical properties c...

An investigatio of the growth of a range of tree species on calcareous soils, including the ability of different species to penetrate the calcareous material with their roots.

Drainage and conversion of natural peatlands into forestry increases soil CO2 emissions through decomposition of peat and modifies the quantity and quality of litter inputs and therefore the soil carbon balance. In organic soils, CO2 net emissions and removals, are reported using carbon emission factors (EF). The choice of specific default Tier 1 E...

Peatlands occupy 20% of the land area of Ireland and store over half of soil carbon stocks. Over 80% of these peatlands have been disturbed by human activity such as drainage for peat extraction, afforestation and agriculture. In this study, peat samples were collected from 12 horticultural peat extraction sites in the Irish midlands. The carbon (C...

The evolution of soil terrestrial ecosystems is a subject with difficulties to define their maturity and evolutionary state. In the last century, thermodynamics was one of the options considered by ecologists for that goal. Difficulties in quantifying the thermodynamic parameters needed by the evolutionary theories caused that this subject has been...

Nutrient deficiency in forest stands has a negative impact on timber production. Although there are numerous studies investigating nutrient deficiency in forests using remote sensing, research has usually focused on extracting nutrient/ pigment concentrations using hyperspectral imagery. Results of studies using this method of assessment are uncert...

Peatlands constitute the largest soil carbon stock in Ireland with 75% of soil carbon stored in a peatland area covering an estimated 20% of the land surface. In spite of their crucial role as carbon stores and potential carbon sinks, biogeochemical processes of peatlands often are affected by past and present disturbances related to various land u...

Visconti, P., Elias, V., Sousa Pinto, I., Fischer, M., Ali-Zade, V., Báldi, A., Brucet, S., Bukvareva, E., Byrne, K., Caplat, P., Feest, A., Guerra, C., Gozlan, R., Jelić, D., Kikvidze, Z., Lavrillier, A., Le Roux, X., Lipka, O., Petrík, P., Schatz, B., Smelansky, I. and Viard, F. (2018): Chapter 3: Status, trends and future dynamics of biodiversit...

Understanding and quantifying soil respiration and its component fluxes are necessary to model global carbon cycling in a changing climate as small changes in soil CO2 fluxes could have important implications for future climatic conditions. A soil respiration partitioning study was conducted in eight afforested peatland sites in south-west Ireland....

Soils act as both sources and sinks of atmospheric C and as such there is great interest in investigating the impact of land use and land use change on C stocks in soils. Peatlands occupy ~20% of the irish landscape and store 75% of all C stocks. While pristine peatlands are long term C sinks, drainage and land use may change these systems to sourc...

Private groundwater sources in the Republic of Ireland provide drinking water to an estimated 750,000 people or 16% of the national population. Consumers of untreated groundwater are at increased risk of infection from pathogenic microorganisms. However, given the volume of private wells in operation, remediation or even quantification of public ri...

Natural peatlands are a high priority for biodiversity conservation, as species and habitats of international importance depend on the waterlogged conditions. Rewetting of drained peatlands and organic soils aims to return these conditions and set the system on a trajectory that will lead to biodiversity levels characteristic of natural peatlands....

Abstract Most of the existing bulk-density pedotransfer functions (PTFs) are formulated as linear (multiple) regression functions, with the requirements for multivariate normality and homoscedasticity. Bulk-density PTFs may or may not use transformed variables, such as natural logarithm (ln), in order to improve the normality and homoscedasticity....

Large quantities of wood products have historically been disposed of in landfills. The fate of this vast pool of carbon plays an important role in national carbon balances and accurate emission reporting. The Republic of Ireland, like many EU countries, utilises the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) guidelines for greenhouse gas...

There is wide consensus that land degradation is a global phenomenon resulting in a substantial loss of both biodiversity and ecosystem services (well established). However, the global extent, severity and trends in degradation remain inconclusive. The negative impact of degradation on ecosystem services has been well established in numerous local...

The continued decline of natural forests globally has increased interest in the potential of planted forests to support biodiversity. Here, we examine the potential conservation benefits of plantation forests from an Irish perspective, a country where remaining natural forests are fragmented and degraded, and the majority of the forest area is comp...

Grassland soils have been highlighted as a global soil carbon (C) sink, and have the potential to sequester additional C. Sequestration of C can occur through incorporation of soil organic carbon (SOC) within micro-aggregates and the silt and clay fractions. The distribution of SOC within macroaggregate fractions gives an insight into both SOC dyna...

Total soil respiration (RTOT) and its components fluxes: autotrophic respiration (RA) and heterotrophic respiration (RH) need to be quantified because they are an important process contributing 60–80% of all ecosystem respiration. Although RTOT is influenced by many environmental factors, the main controlling factors are soil temperature and soil m...

Using collars for measuring soil respiration and its component fluxes in closed chamber systems relies on two main assumptions. Firstly, it is assumed that shallow collars prevent lateral soil gas leakage beneath the chamber’s walls and the underestimation of soil CO2 fluxes, and secondly, the insertion of deeper collars excises all living roots an...

Soil plays a key role in the global carbon (C) cycle. Most current assessments of SOC stocks and the guidelines given by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) focus on the top 30 cm of soil. Our research shows that, when considering only total quantities, most of the SOC stocks are found in this top layer. However, not all forms of SOC a...

Soil surveys for improving carbon (C) stock estimates frequently involve soil sampling by pre-determined regular depth-intervals, in order to enable more convenient computation of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. As a result, soil horizons are often neglected in these surveys, although they represent distinct components of the soil profile. When s...

Cultivated organic soils, which are a large source of CO2 emissions, are of particular interest in the Republic of Ireland where peatlands cover 20 % of the landscape. For accurate accounting and national reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, there is a need to calculate the total land area used for cultivation activity on drained organic so...

Carbon distribution within aggregate sizes in six grassland soils, both in topsoil and subsoil

Inventories of forest soil carbon (C) stocks are necessary to determine spatial and temporal C stock changes and support climate change mitigation policy development. Afforested podzols and peaty podzols were sampled to measure bulk density (BD) and soil organic carbon (SOC) content with the aim of improving baseline soil C stock estimates for Iris...

Background: The Kyoto Protocol allows carbon in forests to contribute to emission-reduction targets. This has been extended to include carbon in harvested wood products (HWP). A projected baseline approach is proposed to identify business as usual and incentivize activities that reduce emissions or increase removals relative to reference level. In...

Increasingly, the aim of mine residue rehabilitation is moving towards ecosystem reconstruction rather than vegetation establishment. In an unamended state, mine residues exhibit degraded soil structure as well as other chemical and biological characteristics which are inhibitory to long-term plant growth. At a bauxite residue disposal area in Sout...

Introduction Animal production systems are the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) and ammonia (NH3) emissions. In Ireland, the contribution to GHG emissions from agriculture are 70% as methane (CH4), 28.5% as nitrous oxide (N2O) and 1.5% as carbon dioxide (CO2). Manure management represents 20% of methane emissions. The emissions from man...

Introduction Agriculture is responsible for 98% of Ireland’s total ammonia (NH3) emissions, with land-spreading and housing/storage of these manures contributing the majority of these emissions (Hyde et al., 2003). Currently, national NH3 inventory calculations do not account for animal type, diet or climatic conditions. The objective of this exper...

Introduction: Biogas is produced by the anaerobic decomposition of animal manures and is predominantly composed of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2). Emissions of CH4 are environmentally undesirable due to its effect on global warming. When compared to CO2, CH4 levels are relatively low within the atmosphere; however, CH4 is 21 times higher th...

Recent decades have seen a rapid increase in the area of privately owned forest plantations in Ireland. This has been largely driven by grant aid from the government. These forests are significant carbon sinks and as such are delivering added benefit to the country by contributing to greenhouse gas reductions under the Kyoto Protocol. The direct im...

Origins, distribution and current use of peatlands in EuropeDisturbances in undrained miresDisturbances due to peatland managementReporting emissions of greenhouse gases from managed peatlandsRecovery from peat loss: restoration, afforestation or energy crops?Conclusions References

The paper presents the main features of the 2006 guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for estimating carbon stock and fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems and in particular in agriculture and forestry systems. The paper also analyses the main weakeness of current methodologies and the way-out proposed to overcome them.

In the next few decades, industrial peat extraction will cease gradually over more than 80,000 hectares of cutaway peatlands in Ireland and alternative land uses will change the landscape of these areas. This study showed that substantial natural regeneration of downy birch (Betula pubescens) can occur on abandoned as well as cutaway peatlands affo...

Hot spots of CH(4) emissions are a typical feature of pristine peatlands at the microsite and landscape scale. To determine whether rewetting and lake construction in a cutaway peatland would result in the re-creation of hot spots, we first measured CH(4) fluxes over a 2-year period with static chambers and estimated annual emissions. Second, to as...

A vegetation survey was carried out in a relatively intact Atlantic blanket bog in Southwest Ireland to study the vegetation patterns in relation to environmental variation, and to quantify the effect of artificial and natural borders on compositional variation. The data were analysed using canonical correspondence analysis. In terms of both vegeta...

The restoration of cutaway peatlands provides an opportunity to return the carbon (C) sink function and to examine the influence of climate on peat formation and C accumulation. We studied CO2 exchange dynamics in 2002 and 2003 at a rewetted cutaway peatland located within the temperate maritime climatic zone. Gross photosynthesis (PG), ecosystem r...

Peatlands play an important role in the global carbon (C) cycle, by acting as a large, long-term C sink. The C sink is sustained by a high water level that inhibits decomposition of organic matter. The C gas dynamics are therefore sensitive to changes in water level, and in climatically different years a peatland can vary from a sink to a source of...

Using both historic records and CORINE land cover maps, we assessed the impact of land cover change on the stock of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the Republic of Ireland from 1851 to 2000. We identified ten principal land cover classes: arable land, forest, grassland, heterogeneous agricultural areas/other, nonvegetated semi-natural areas, peatland,...

Pristine peatlands are a significant source of atmospheric methane (CH4). Large spatio–temporal variation has been observed in flux rates within and between peatlands. Variation is commonly associated with water level, vegetation structure, soil chemistry and climatic variability. We measured spatial and temporal variation in CH4 fluxes in a blanke...

The surface of bogs is commonly patterned and composed of different vegetation communities, defined by water level. Carbon dioxide (CO2) dynamics vary spatially between the vegetation communities. An understanding of the controls on the spatial variation of CO2 dynamics is required to assess the role of bogs in the global carbon cycle. The water le...

Studies using eddy covariance have shown grasslands to be both sinks and sources of carbon dioxide (CO2). However, such studies do not take into account the exports of carbon (C), such as in meat and milk and imports of C, such as off-farm derived C in cattle feed supplement. By coupling eddy covariance results with farm management data we quantifi...

Reporting carbon (C) stocks in tree biomass (above- and belowground) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) should be transparent and verifiable. The development of nationally specific data is considered ‘good practice’ to assist in meeting these reporting requirements. From this study, biomass functions were develope...

We studied vegetation dynamics at peatlands, differing in their climate, land use management history and vegetation community in Ireland and Finland over a two-year period. Our aim was to develop a species-specific method to be used to (1) describe the seasonal dynamics of green (photosynthetic) area (GA) of the vegetation and (2) incorporate these...

We reviewed the experimental evidence for long-term carbon (C) sequestration in soils as consequence of specific forest management strategies. Utilization of terrestrial C sinks alleviates the burden of countries which are committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. Land-use changes such as those which result from afforestation and manage...

We measured the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of a managed humid grassland in southwest Ireland from 2002 to 2004 with an eddy covariance (EC) system. In addition, a process-based biogeochemical model (PaSim) incorporating land management practices such as grazing and grass harvesting was used to simulate the carbon dynamics. The modeled NEE of 2.6,...

Temperate grasslands represent about 32% of the earth’s land area and cover approximately 56% of the area of Ireland; yet their role as sources/sinks of atmospheric CO2 is not well quantified. We used an eddy covariance (EC) system to measure the net ecosystem exchange (NEE) at a managed grassland site in southern Ireland for 2 years. Rainfall in 20...

Net ecosystem exchange (NEE) was measured in a patterned peatland with eddy covariance (EC) and chamber methods during a 12-month period. The peatland surface was composed of microforms characterized by a difference in water level and vegetation composition. The distribution of microforms varied spatially within the peatland. To achieve corresponde...

The effect of stand age on soil respiration and its components was studied in a first rotation Sitka spruce chronosequence composed of 10-, 15-, 31-, and 47-year-old stands established on wet mineral gley in central Ireland. For each stand age, three forest stands with similar characteristics of soil type and site preparation were used. There were...

Total (RTOT) and heterotrophic (RH) respiration were measured in an intensively managed perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) grassland. The overall aim of the study was to partition RTOT into RH and autotrophic respiration (RA). This was achieved as follows: (1) analyse the effect of air temperature, soil moisture content and leaf area index on R...

During recent years harvested wood products (HWP) have received growing attention because they may be included in national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and possibly Kyoto Protocol (KP) accounting procedures in future commitment periods, with practical and economic consequences for both reporting and timber markets.The Intergovernmental Panel on...