Located at the tripoint of the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia and tucked away in a lowland floodplain forest stands ICOS station Lanžhot, an ICOS Ecosystem station which measures carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4).
Floodplain forests are often managed through processes such as building dams and extracting water from rivers. These sorts of management practices have resulted in serious worsening of floodplain forests and their greenhouse gas balance across the world.
These effects have been observed at Lanžhot. Artificial lakes built around the site have changed the water flow in the area over the years. In addition, the air temperature at Lanžhot has increased and droughts occur more often due to climate change. ICOS observations at Lanžhot bring needed knowledge on how the floodplain forest behaves in an altered environment and in the course of ongoing climate change.
ICOS station Lanžhot is part of the ICOS Ecosystem Network, which is working towards understanding the processes behind the exchange of energy and greenhouse gases between the ecosystems and the atmosphere.
