Data & code belonging with MSc thesis "Paludiculture in the Netherlands: A Viable Option in a Changing Climate?"

Summary

With intensive agricultural use of peatlands, these peatlands in the Netherlands emit 5 times more greenhouse gases than regular agricultural fields while also experiencing subsidence. Paludiculture, the concept of farming on rewetted peatlands, is a strategy that can help restore peatlands while maintaining the farmer’s livelihood and can also be applied to other wetlands. In this study the crop suitability model EcoCrop was expanded with a water balance function and soil texture, soil type and pH information to assess the suitability of 14 crops from multiple continents in the Netherlands under current and 4 different climate scenarios for 2050. Hydrologically, a quarter of the Netherlands was identified as having a moderate or higher potential for paludiculture. The expanded EcoCrop model, which performed better than the base EcoCrop model, showed that in general peatlands and heavy textured soils around the rivers were most suitable for the selected crops. With raised water tables, Typha spp. (cattail), Ipomoea aquatica (water spinach) and Nasturtium officinale (watercress) are most suitable under current environmental conditions, while Phalaris arundinacea (reed canary grass) also performs well under natural conditions. The impact of climate change on the suitability of the selected crops is minimal, however some East Asian crops benefit from the temperature increase. Sensitivity in the model results was found to be mainly caused by uncertainty in the spatial pH dataset, which upon improvement would significantly lower the sensitivity. Moreover, improvement of the evapotranspiration data, by using daily timesteps and crop factors, or coupling the EcoCrop model to a process-based agro-hydrological model would increase the realism of the results.