Peatland pools: aquatic carbon and biota

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• Peatland pools aquatic carbon and biota

Joseph Holden Lee Brown Ed Turner, Rebecca
McKenzie. Jeannie Beadle, Sorain Ramchunder, Andy
Baird, Mike Billett, Pippa Chapman, Kerry
Dinsmore, Gemma Dooling, Fraser Leith
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• What is the role of peatland pools as bioreactors
  of carbon?
• How do the pools function?
• Do artificial pools (ditch blocking) operate in a
  similar way to natural pools?

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see Jeannie Beadles poster
see Ed Turners poster
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Pool water DOC
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DOC of peat porewater upslope of pools
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DOC of overland inflow to pools
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• Also measured CO2, CH4 (dissolved and evaded)
  compared with peat terrestrial flux
• High values from pools often several hundred
  times atmospheric concentrations.
• Carbon in the artificial pool systems is modern
  good news for restoration
• When comparing ditched versus restored situations
  we found no significant difference in CO2, CH4
  and GHG forcing for whole sites (see poster on
  results from Migneint, Wales)

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Peatland restoration pool biota
t? ?
N. Emerald S. arctica
White faced Darter Leucorrhinia danae
T. serrulifera
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Pool ecosystems - biota
Beadle et al. 2014. FBA News 63, p3 Carter et al.
2015. Algological Studies 149, p61
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Pool ecosystems - biota
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800
12
600
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Richness
Total abundance
400
4
200
0
0
Artificial
Natural
Artificial
Natural
100
Other taxa
80
Coleoptera
60
Tipulidae
Hemiptera

40
Chironomidae
Trichoptera
20
Plecoptera
0
Artificial
Natural
Brown et al. 2016. submitted
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Pool ecosystems - biota
PERMANOVA shows small but significant
differences macroinvertebrate community
composition between North vs. south Pennines (R2
0.17, p0.001) Natural vs. artificial pools
(R2 0.09 p0.001) Region Pool type (R2
0.09 p0.001)
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Pool ecosystems - biota
Generalities across UK, Canada, Finland, Ireland
and Netherlands restoration studies Physico-chem
istry similar across pool types Invertebrate
community structure between pool types/temporal
C, I
Important habitats for Chironomidae N,
I Coleoptera re-establish rapidly C, I,
N Odonate populations establishing in
artificial pools C, F, I, N Benefits for other
organisms (plants, algae, amphibians, birds) C,
N
Benefits will be lost if pools are designed to
infill over time, or not even realised if drains
are blocked completely during restoration
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Thanks to