Authors:
Sharif Mahmood, Maria Strack, Cameroon Robinson
Book:
Proceedings of the 14th International Peat Congress
Venue:
Stockholm
Keywords:
greenhouse-gas, peatlands, revegetation, rewetting
Documentfile:
Mahmood et al 2012: Greenhouse Gas Exchange of Cutover Minerotrophic Peatlands – Effect of Revegetation and Rewetting
Summary:
Theme X. Peatland carbon budgets and greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes
SUMMARY
Peatlands play an important role in the global carbon cycle storing about one third of global soil carbon. However, peat extraction reduces this soil carbon stock and sites may remain large sources of atmospheric carbon after extraction activities cease. This study was conducted at an abandoned cutover minerotrophic peatland in eastern Quebec, Canada that was abandoned for the last several decades after peat extraction using vacuum harvesting techniques. We studied six revegetating communities that were dominant at the cutover site in 2009, before, and 2010, after rewetting the site. The results showed that revegetation increased the CO2 uptake at the abandoned site. CH4 flux was lower than in previous studies. Rewetting showed significant increase in net ecosystem exchange for CO2 and CH4 flux.