Abstract
The restoration of drained afforested peatlands, through drain blocking and tree removal, is increasing in response to peatland restoration targets and policy incentives. In the short term, these intensive restoration operations may affect receiving watercourses and the biota that depend upon them. This study assessed the immediate effect of ‘forest-to-bog’ restoration by measuring stream and river water quality for a 15 month period pre- and post-restoration, in the Flow Country peatlands of northern Scotland. We found that the chemistry of streams draining restoration areas differed from that of control streams following restoration, with phosphate concentrations significantly higher (1.7–6.2 fold, mean 4.4) in restoration streams compared to the pre-restoration period. This led to a decrease in the pass rate (from 100 to 75%) for the target “good” quality threshold (based on EU Water Framework Directive guidelines) in rivers in this immediate post-restoration period, when compared to unaffected river baseline sites (which fell from 100 to 90% post-restoration). While overall increases in turbidity, dissolved organic carbon, iron, potassium and manganese were not significant post-restoration, they exhibited an exaggerated seasonal cycle, peaking in summer months in restoration streams. We attribute these relatively limited, minor short-term impacts to the fact that relatively small percentages of the catchment area (3–23%), in our study catchments were felled, and that drain blocking and silt traps, put in place as part of restoration management, were likely effective in mitigating negative effects. Looking ahead, we suggest that future research should investigate longer term water quality effects and compare different ways of potentially controlling nutrient release.
Highlights
Peatland restoration is a growing global practice that aims to improve ecosystem services such as climate regulation, water provision and biodiversity conservation, from degraded peatland areas (Bonn et al 2016)
Significant increases in stream PO43- have been found by others following forest felling, which has been directly related to the post-felling decomposition of tree biomass; the left over needles and branches (Cummins and Farrell 2003a; Kaila et al 2012; Asam et al 2014a; Shah and Nisbet 2019; Table 2)
Our study did not target high flow events, the maximum concentrations measured could suggest that the use of silt traps in addition to drain blocking in our restoration sites may have helped prevent a significant increase in suspended particulate matter (SPM) in streams affected by restoration
Summary
Peatland restoration is a growing global practice that aims to improve ecosystem services such as climate regulation, water provision and biodiversity conservation, from degraded peatland areas (Bonn et al 2016) The value of such restoration is widely recognised and many countries in Europe, North America and Asia, have undertaken large-scale restoration schemes, to restore peatlands degraded due to land management and industrial development (NPWS 2015; Andersen et al 2016; Anderson et al 2016 ; Chimner et al 2017). As these trees grow and the canopy closes, specialist, native peatland vegetation is lost, and surface peat layers continue to degrade as they dry out further, resulting in continued carbon dioxide emissions from peat beneath the plantation (Hermans 2018) and, potentially, associated deterioration in water quality (Haapalehto et al 2014; Anderson et al 2016)
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