Interactive comment on “The impacts of drainage, nutrient status and management practice on the full carbon balance of grasslands on organic soils in a maritime temperate zone” by F. Renou-Wilson

This paper presents the complete net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) for three grasslands on organic soils in Ireland. The NECB included all the measured, estimated and modelled parameters usually determined in these types of studies, and also included the fluvial (waterborne) component of C loss, which is still a novel addition to NECB studies. The sites were selected to compare drainage (deep and shallow annual average water table), nutrient status (added fertilizer with low intensity grazing and low intensity grazing only). Both types of grasslands proved to be net sources of C on an annual basis. The nutrient rich site emitted about 5 times the C as the shal-