MOSCOW, November 9. A strategy for restoring a disturbed swamp ecosystem on the site of abandoned peat mining was proposed by scientists from the Immanuel Kant IKBFU. According to them, ecological rehabilitation of bogs can lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the prevention of peat fires, and the conservation and return of rare species of plants and animals. The results were published in the journal Land.
Researchers noted that there are many abandoned peat mines, the soil and ecological state of which has been practically unexplored. This creates a real threat of difficult-to-stop peat fires and a manifold increase in CO2 emissions. Such areas, which arose from drained swamps, account for five percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, including as a result of fires.
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Specialists from the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (IKBFU), working at the Rosyanka carbon test site in the Kaliningrad region, studied the structure and properties of the soils of the disturbed Vittgirrensky peat bog, which is the land site of the carbon test site. Scientists have predicted how its different sections will be able to function and develop if technology for sequestration (binding) of greenhouse gases is introduced on it, and specifically, technology for secondary swamping (ecological rehabilitation of the swamp ecosystem).
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“We analyzed the actual degree of soil degradation and the current vegetation cover of the peatland, thereby assessing the potential for restoration of bog communities in different areas of abandoned peat mining. It is these measures that can eliminate the environmentally unfavorable situation,” said a researcher at the REC “Geoecology and Marine Environmental Management” IKBFU named after Immanuel Kant Maxim Napreenko.
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According to him, the developed methodology combines an analysis of the history of soil development, an assessment of their current state and a forecast of future development. Therefore, it can be implemented at other similar sites.
«Research projects on the restoration of disturbed wetlands over the past 15-20 years have been carried out in different countries, but, as a rule, they are based on detailed studying the water regime of peatlands. At IKBFU, in addition to this, the principle of studying the spatial heterogeneity of soils has also been implemented,” added Olga Antsiferova, a researcher at IKBFU.
Scientists emphasized that such soil and botanical research is important and for another direction of using destroyed swamps — swamp plant growing. Resource plants (reed, cranberries, sphagnum, sedge) are grown on peatlands for various applications — for example, to obtain biomass for fuel or construction production, means for sprouting flowers, food, animal feed.
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