Objective
The additional research carried out bY Dr Ilomets Will study the historical rates of accumulation of dry matter and nutrients during the development of Sphagnum bogs in Estonia. This will be achieved in two ways. Firstly, by measuring these rates at microsites such as hummocks and depressions on the bog surface. Monoliths of the moss hummock and underlying peat will be sectioned into thin slices and then analysed for bulk density and chemical composition. Changes with depth in the core will be compared with records of the bog hydrology and rainfall inputs during the past 40 years. Similar information will be obtained at a different scale by sampling along transects on the bog surface, comparing profiles of bulk density and ash contents from beneath different plant species. Plant fossil remains will be identified and the stratigraphical features dated by radiocarbon analysis. From the age-based development of microsites and the bog system, the characteristics influenced by climate change will be identified. This work will complement the existing project which includes studies on the stratigraphic variation of peat microbiological and chemical factors in relation to nitrogen inputs and enable the results of the nitrogen study to be scaled up to the bog system level.
The detailed work in estonia will provide a firm base for the existing project by relating the chemical or nutrient profiles in Sphagnum dominated bogs to the biological process of peat formation. Such relationships include the growth and decomposition of different Sphagnum species in microhabitats. This information will help elucidate the consequences of nitrogen deposition for bog development and also provide some knowledge that would be useful in bog rehabilitation. In relation to the four existing countries in the collaboration, UK, France, Finland and Switzerland, Estonia lies at a similar latitude to Scotland, UK but in a more eastern situation, it could therefore have a very different nitrogen input. Current work in the programme is concentrating on Sphagnum magellanicum, a species that is also present in the Estonian bogs.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
AB15 8QH ABERDEEN
United Kingdom