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Growing season carbon gas exchange from peatlands used as a source of vegetation donor material for restoration

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Abstract

The moss layer transfer technique removes the top layer of vegetation from donor sites as a method to transfer propagules and restore degraded or reclaimed peatlands. As this technique is new, little is known about the impacts of moss layer transfer on vegetation and carbon fluxes following harvest. We monitored growing season carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes as well as plant communities at donor sites and neighbouring natural peatland sites in an ombrotrophic bog and minerotrophic fen in Alberta, Canada from which material was harvested between 1 and 6 years prior to the study. Plant recovery at all donor sites was rapid with an average of 72% total plant cover one growing season after harvest at the fen and an average of 87% total plant cover two growing seasons after harvest at the bog. Moss cover also returned, averaging 84% 6 years after harvest at the bog. The majority of natural peatlands in western Canada are treed and tree recruitment at the donor sites was limited. Methane emissions were higher from donor sites compared to natural sites due to the high water table and greater sedge cover. Carbon budgets suggested that the donor fen and bog sites released higher CO2 and CH4 over the growing season compared to adjacent natural sites. However, vegetation re-establishment on donor sites was rapid, and it is possible that these sites will return to their original carbon-cycle functioning after disturbance, suggesting that donor sites may recover naturally without implementing management strategies.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for funding provided by NSERC Collaborative Research and Development grants co-funded by the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association and its members (Project 437463), particularly SunGro Horticulture Ltd., and Suncor Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Resources Limited and Shell Canada Energy (Project 418557). We gratefully acknowledge Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) for its support of this project. KM also received funding from the Program for Undergraduate Research Experience (PURE), University of Calgary. Further, we acknowledge SunGro Horticulture for granting site access. Finally, we thank field assistants Mendel Perkins, Heather Yeung, Katie Lowey, Emily Kaing, Mireille Rodrigue-Pruneau, Melanie Bird and Melody Fraser, as well as Elise Gabrielli for providing tree cores. Comments from two anonymous reviewers and the editor greatly improved the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    Kimberley R. Murray & Maria Strack

  2. Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Andrea K. Borkenhagen & David J. Cooper

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  1. Kimberley R. Murray
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Correspondence to Maria Strack.

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Murray, K.R., Borkenhagen, A.K., Cooper, D.J. et al. Growing season carbon gas exchange from peatlands used as a source of vegetation donor material for restoration. Wetlands Ecol Manage 25, 501–515 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-017-9531-5

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