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Ecosystem Service Restoration after 10 Years of Rewetting Peatlands in NE Germany

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Abstract

The restoration of ecosystem services, i.e., production, regulation, and information, is a global challenge, which the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in NE Germany addressed in 2000 by rewetting over 20,000 ha of degraded peatlands within the Mire Restoration Program. We evaluated ecosystem services in 23 rewetted sites by assessing the following mire parameters within a ten year period: (a) dominant vegetation at the ecosystem level, (b) peat formation potential at the landscape level, and (c) aboveground biomass and nutrient levels. Seven to 10 years after rewetting, the wetlands formed a mosaic of vegetation types with the highest potential for peat formation and several dominant, peat-forming species accumulated high levels of aboveground biomass and nutrients (C, N, P). Common reed (Phragmites australis) accumulated the most biomass (up to 24 t dry matter/ha), and N+P during the growing season. A future management option is to annually harvest aquatic and wetland plants to reduce nutrient levels in restored mire ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

This assessment of restoration success was based on single studies kindly supported by the Landesamt für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Geologie in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (LUNG MV).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Science and Technology, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Piazza Università 5, 39100, Bozen, Italy

    Stefan Zerbe

  2. Luftbild Umwelt Planung GmbH (LUP), Große Weinmeisterstraße 3a, 14469, Potsdam, Germany

    Peggy Steffenhagen & Annett Frick

  3. Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University Greifswald, Grimmer Str. 88, 17487, Greifswald, Germany

    Karsten Parakenings & Tiemo Timmermann

  4. Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries Berlin, Müggelseedamm 301, 12587, Berlin, Germany

    Jörg Gelbrecht & Dominik Zak

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  1. Stefan Zerbe
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  2. Peggy Steffenhagen
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  4. Tiemo Timmermann
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  6. Jörg Gelbrecht
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  7. Dominik Zak
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Correspondence to Stefan Zerbe.

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Zerbe, S., Steffenhagen, P., Parakenings, K. et al. Ecosystem Service Restoration after 10 Years of Rewetting Peatlands in NE Germany. Environmental Management 51, 1194–1209 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0048-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-013-0048-2

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