BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Environ. Eng.
Sec. Air Pollution Management
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenve.2025.1634737
Annual greenhouse gas fluxes from a thin-layer rooftop lawn
Provisionally accepted
- 1Advanced Energy Research & Development Division, Innovative Research Excellence, Power Unit & Energy, Honda R&D Co., Ltd., Haga-machi, Japan
- 2Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
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Green roofs are a key solution for increasing green spaces in urban areas covered with impervious surfaces. In recent years, there has been growing interest in the ability of green spaces to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance carbon sequestration. To investigate whether green roofs contribute to GHG reduction, it is essential to quantify both carbon sequestration and GHG fluxes. However, few studies have investigated GHG fluxes from green roofs over the long term. To address this gap, this study measured and quantified the annual GHG (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O)) fluxes from a thin-layer rooftop lawn using clear acrylic automatic open/close chambers. In addition, we calculated CO2 sequestration based on the difference between total carbon contents in rooftop lawns (soil and turf) at the beginning and end of the experiment. The annual CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes were calculated to be -1762 g-CO2･m -2 ･year -1 , 92.33 mg-CH4･m - 2 ･year -1 , and 0.53 mg-N2O･m -2 ･year -1 respectively, and CO2 sequestration by plants and soil was estimated to be -2626 g-CO2•m -2 •year -1 during the first year after construction. The CH4 and N2O fluxes from the rooftop lawn were significantly lower than those reported in other studies conducted on ground-level lawns. Based on these results, annual GHG emission (total of CO2, CH4, and N2O) from the rooftop lawn were calculated to be -1759 to -2623 g-CO2e (CO2 equivalents)･m -2 ･year -1 , indicating that the rooftop lawn acts as GHG sink.
Keywords: green roof, Turf, Carbon neutral, Soil flux, Carbon Sequestration
Received: 25 May 2025; Accepted: 23 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Masuda, Mito, Morii, Kuronuma and Watanabe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Takanori Kuronuma, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
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