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Vegetation Composition and Carbon Dioxide Fluxes on Rewetted Milled Peatlands — Comparison with Undisturbed Bogs

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Abstract

Rewetting is the most common restoration approach for milled peatlands in Europe, with the aim of creating suitable conditions for the development of peatland specific plant cover and carbon accumulation. Therefore, it is important to determine if milled peatlands become functionally and structurally similar to their undisturbed counterparts. We measured plant functional type (PFT) cover and biomass, bryophyte production and CO2 fluxes on three rewetted peatlands in Estonia restored 4, 15, and 35 years before the measurements and compared observations at rewetted sites to two nearby reference bogs. We hoped to better understand whether structure and function return at rewetted sites over time. Differences in vegetation composition and CO2 fluxes between the sites were greater for rewetted than undisturbed sites. The most recently rewetted site was mainly covered in bare peat and Eriophorum vaginatum and was a CO2 source. On the rewetted site of 15 years, Sphagnum was present in addition to ombrotrophic sedges, and in the rewetted site of 35 years, lawn-hollow microtopography is starting to develop with various PFTs. Both of these sites were CO2 sinks. Lawn Sphagnum was abundant on the two older rewetted sites, and was connected with CO2 sink functioning in the rewetted sites. Still, hummock Sphagnum species, which were present in undisturbed bogs, were absent from all of the rewetted sites. With time, CO2 fluxes, microtopography and vegetation develop after rewetting in the direction of undisturbed bogs, while vegetation composition still differs from the reference sites even 35 years after rewetting.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

The codes used for data modelling and analysis are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Estonian Forest Management Centre for rewetting the Hara site and AS Jiffy Products Estonia for allowing access to the Kõrsa rewetted site for the study. Aleksandra Krijer helped us with biomass measurements in the study sites.

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  1. School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Anna-Helena Purre

  2. Institute of Ecology, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia

    Mati Ilomets

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  1. Anna-Helena Purre
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Both authors contributed to the study conception and design. Anna-Helena Purre conducted the material preparation, fieldwork, laboratory and data analysis, and she wrote the first draft of the manuscript. Mati Ilomets commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Purre, AH., Ilomets, M. Vegetation Composition and Carbon Dioxide Fluxes on Rewetted Milled Peatlands — Comparison with Undisturbed Bogs. Wetlands 41, 120 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01518-2

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