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Results of the WETSCAPES research project

New comprehensive understanding of rewetted fens

04/02/2021 Research results from the four-year WETSCAPES project of the Universities of Rostock and Greifswald were presented by the participating scientists on February 24th - online, of course. Among other things, they found that studied rewetted peatlands are partly net CO2 sinks, emissions of methane play a smaller role than previously assumed, and peatlands may function as sink for nitrous oxide. Looking into the ground and the past showed that root growth in fens can be up to ten times higher than on mineral soils, and that drainage has lowered ecosystem services in fen-rich areas of northern Germany, some of them irreversibly. As part of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's excellence research programme, the WETSCAPES project has pooled the local but internationally significant expertise in peatland research and provided a scientific basis for state policy makers and land owners. They can now decide even more reliably and consistently in favour of rewetting as a central climate protection measure of the state.

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