Assessment of an integrated peat-harvesting and reclamation method: peatland-atmosphere carbon fluxes and vegetation recovery

We document a two-year experimental trial of a recently-developed integrated peat-harvesting and reclamation technique at a poor fen in northern Ontario, Canada. We removed and conserved the uppermost ~0.3 m of peat in blocks while deeper peat was harvested from the resultant pit. We allowed the extraction pit to flood with shallow groundwater, and then reclaimed the conserved surficial peat blocks by transplanting them into the flooded pit …