{"id":8527,"date":"2021-06-17T15:36:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T13:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/life.npsumava.cz\/2021\/06\/17\/jak-reaguji-raseliniste-na-odvodneni\/"},"modified":"2021-06-22T13:53:05","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T11:53:05","slug":"how-are-peat-bogs-affected-by-drainage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/life.npsumava.cz\/en\/2021\/06\/17\/how-are-peat-bogs-affected-by-drainage\/","title":{"rendered":"How are peat bogs affected by drainage?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Effect of drainage on peat properties (evaluation of the state before restoration)<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The University of South Bohemia in \u010cesk\u00e9 Bud\u011bjovice (Department of Ecosystem Biology, Faculty of Science), as one of the four partners of the project, provides monitoring of\u00a0soil processes in peat at selected localities.<\/p>\n

Zuzana Urbanov\u00e1 a Tom\u00e1\u0161 Picek introduce the first results of monitoring activities carried out within the LIFE for MIRES project<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Our work mainly consists of soil sampling and evaluation of several physico-chemical properties that can show to what extent peat is degraded due to long-term drainage and how quickly it reacts to restoration (water level increase \/ re-wetting). These analyses should contribute to the evaluation of the success of the restoration measures which are being carried out. For these purposes, we have selected several indicators based on previous experience and these are: bulk density, peat moisture, pH, total content of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, biological parameters include microbial biomass, microbial production of carbon dioxide and methane and the decomposition rate of organic matter. In the following text we will focus on the first characteristic and that is the bulk density of peat<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

One of the main indicators of peat “disturbance” is bulk density. This property tells us how heavy the peat is for a given volume in its natural state, i.e. how much the peat is decomposed, how many pores it has and how much water it retains. Undisturbed peat consists of undecomposed or only partially decomposed plant residues and is very fluffy, porous and retains a large amount of water. Up to 95 % of the peat volume can be water! When peat is exposed to a long-term draw down in the water level due to drainage, it\u00a0is aerated and is “exposed” to aerobic microbial decomposition<\/strong> (decomposition with access to oxygen). Due to decomposition, it descends, loses porosity and thus the ability to bind such a large amount of water – its bulk density increases.<\/p>\n

The results of monitoring before restoration clearly show a significant effect of long-term drainage on this physical property of peat. As part of our work, we took samples of\u00a0peat from raised bogs (a type of peatland saturated only with rainwater), which were exposed to different intensity of drainage. We measured the properties of peat at undisturbed natural sites, which represent control plots and the state of “what it should look like”. We also sampled four bogs in different stages of degradation from slightly disturbed to very intensively drained.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t