Solutions for reducing the environmental impact of different land uses in peatlands

Different land use patterns of drained peatlands and environmental impacts caused by their use has been actively under political and societal discussion during recent years. Natural Resources Institute Finland together with University of Oulu are applying funding for a project that aims to study what are the environmental effects caused by managed peatlands under different land use. The research will be conducted during years 2021-2023 at Ruukki research station administered by Natural Resources Institute Finland. Different land uses studied in this project are cultivated peatland, forested peatland, abandoned cultivated peatland and pristine peatland. This allows to examine the transfers from one land use to another and to compare environmental effects between land use types. Study sites are located geographically close to each other sharing the same peatland area which enables feasible comparison of differences between land use types. Greenhouse gas emissions will be measured year-round and in hydrological studies we will concentrate especially to study phosphorus. In cultivated peatlands we will expand the greenhouse gas measurements to study carbon sequestration and changes in soil carbon storage. To be able to mitigate successfully the environmental impact and loading of managed peatlands requires interdisciplinary know-how which needs to be make known to different stakeholders besides sharing the results from the project. Therefore, the project includes a work package with the theme of using the modern research environment built on Ruukki in data transfer to different stakeholders and decision makers.