Authors:
Kairi Sepp and Mati Ilomets
Book:
After Wise Use – The Future of Peatlands, Proceedings of the 13th International Peat Congress: Peat in Horticulture
Keywords:
fv-fm, growth, phosphorus, sphagnum-magellanicum, water-level
Documentfile:
Sepp et al. 2008: Effect of phosphorus and moisture conditions on the growth
Summary:
We studied the effect of P and water level (WL) on the growth of Sphagnum magellanicum. In the laboratory experiment the addition of P suppressed the linear growth but enhanced the lateral growth of S. magellanicum. The field WL affected the growth of Sphagnum in the laboratory. In the field experiment the effect of P upon the growth and chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence of Sphagnum was expressed through the interaction with microsite peculiarities. Neither P nor N was among the primary limiting factors for Sphagnum growth. Instead, certain adaptations of Sphagnum to habitat conditions turned out to be important.