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Fennoscandia has a long history of draining peatlands to increase forest production. Since these areas are potentially large sources of carbon dioxide (CO2), rewetting is considered as a strategy for mitigating these emissions. However, empirical data on how rewetting affects the spatial variability and partitioning of the carbon (C) cycle components, including production, respiration and methane (CH4) fluxes, are largely missing, in particular for minerogenic boreal peatlands. In this study, we addressed this knowledge gap by conducting chamber measurements of C fluxes over one growing season prior (2020) and two following (2021-2022) the rewetting of a minerogenic drained peatland forest in boreal Sweden. Our results show that higher water table level (WTL) following rewetting led to increased daytime net CO2 uptake, driven by increased gross primary production, as well as to enhanced CH4 emissions. Furthermore, heterotrophic respiration decreased in the second year after rewetting, whereas total forest-floor respiration remained similar due to a concurrent increase in its autotrophic component. We further found that rewetting impacts on CO2 and CH4 fluxes were highest closest to the ditch, however, no consistent gradient with distance from the ditch was observed. Instead, spatial variations of C fluxes were more closely related to specific local environmental conditions. Thus, our study highlights a spatially non-uniform response of all C cycle components during the initial years following rewetting. This poses a challenge for process-based modelling and the application of default emission factors for evaluating rewetting effects on the peatland C cycle.

Nyckelord

Boreal region; Forest peatland rewetting; Carbon dioxide; Methane; Closed chamber; Spatial variability; Flux partitioning

Publicerad i

Forest Ecology and Management
2026, volym: 610, artikelnummer: 123669
Utgivare: ELSEVIER

SLU författare

UKÄ forskningsämne

Skogsvetenskap

Publikationens identifierare

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2026.123669

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/146603