Hydrologic aspects of drained peatland renaturalization

Abstract

The peatland drainage is one of the main man-made factors of the landscape water circulation and peatland ecosystems degradation. To return former sustainable ecological state of peatland it is necessary to carry out the renaturalization. The essence of renaturalization is renewal of water regime with following renewal of the peatland ecosystem like it was before drainage. Change of water runoff regime is effective mechanism of the peatland renaturalization – so called active protection. To renaturalize the Zalyvky peatland in the Roztochia Natural Reserve it is necessary to keep high groundwater level that will cause renewal of peat forming, stop succession processes, growing up by untypical for peatland plant species, reduce the risk of peat burning. Based on the results of natural conditions and recent ecological state of the Zalyvky peatland analysis the general scheme of renaturalization and hydrologic regime renewal has been worked out. With this aim, the series of measures are realized. They allow increasing the groundwater levels due to coming of water from the river streams and channels, making the runoff slower and renewing small water bodies. Small water bodies like ponds play not only water regulating role but also key ecological role for many bird species, ecological education, and tourist-recreation attractive. It is expected that keeping of higher ground water levels will be assisted by the beavers population with their natural dams. Key words: renaturalization, drainage melioration, peatland, water runoff regulating.