Authors:
Jukka Turunen and Samu Valpola
Book:
Proceedings of the 15th International Peat Congress
Venue:
Kuching
Keywords:
carbon-storage, finland, peat, peatlands, vegetation
Documentfile:
ipc16p528a412turunen.valpola.pdf
Summary:
Over 2/3 of the carbon (C) reservoir of ecosystems in Finland is in peat. In 1950, almost 90% of the Finnish peatlands were in a natural state. The use of peatlands for forestry drainage, agriculture and peat harvesting has changed the nature of Finnish peatlands and has had large impacts on their overall role in the national C balance. The present peatland area is estimated at 8.9 million ha, 4.8 million ha of which has been drained for forestry. In the 2008 study, the knowledge of mire area change since 1950 was considered relatively reliable, whereas the net changes in the actual C sequestration and the actual C storage change were much less certain. Since 2008, there…