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Effects of drainage and wood ash fertilization on water chemistry at a cutover peatland

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Abstract

Afforestation is one of many different ways to reclaim cutover peatland areas. Among the treatments often required to obtain successful afforestation are supplementary drainage, fertilization and rotovation. This study presents the effects of drainage and wood-ash fertilization on the chemical composition of water in a cutover peatland area, which constitutes 34 hectares of a minerotrophic mire in SW Sweden. Fourteen hectares of the cutover peatland was amended with 23 tonnes of wood ash, 0.4 tonnes of raw phosphate and 0.25 tonnes of superphosphate per hectare, while different doses of a PK-fertilizer were applied on the remaining 20 hectares. The chemical properties of groundwater and stream water in the wood-ash amended area were compared with those in the PK-fertilized area and a control area. Outflowing groundwater emanating from the mineral subsoil affected the chemical composition of peat groundwater and streamwater. Drainage changed chemical composition more than the wood ash fertilization. Drainage led to increases in SO4 and decreases in alkalinity in both peat groundwater and in stream water. The pH decreased in peat groundwater, whereas the streamwater pH was not affected because the high alkalinity in the mineral soil groundwater buffered the acid peat groundwater. Fertilization increased contents of K, Ca and Mn in both peat groundwater and stream water. Contents of B, o-P and Tot-P increased in peat groundwater but not in stream water, whereas the reverse was true for Mg. The outflow of P did not increase in spite of the large amount of P applied. The high retention of P was caused by large quantities of sesquioxides, especially Fe-oxides in the peat.

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  1. Department of Forest Soils, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7001, S-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Torbjörn Nilsson & Lars Lundin

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  1. Torbjörn Nilsson
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  2. Lars Lundin
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Nilsson, T., Lundin, L. Effects of drainage and wood ash fertilization on water chemistry at a cutover peatland. Hydrobiologia 335, 3–18 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00013678

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00013678

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