Toward restoring the net carbon sink function of degraded peatlands: Short‐term response in CO2 exchange to ecosystem‐scale restoration

Northern peatlands represent a globally important stock of soil carbon and have acted as a net sink of atmospheric CO 2 throughout the Holocene. Disturbance for horticultural peat extraction disrupts ecosystem function and converts these ecosystems to large, persistent sources of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). This study investigates the effect of ecosystem‐scale restoration on growing season CO 2 exchange in a peatland by comparing a restored site to a neighboring nonrestored section for 1 year prerestoration (1999) and 3 years postrestoration (2000–2002). Prior to restoration, less than 23% of the site was vegetated, and it was a source of 245 g C m −2 to the atmosphere during the growing season (May to early October). Following restoration, the water table remained deep, and soil moisture was significantly higher than the nonrestored section. By the third year postrestoration, vegetation covered 50% of the restored peatland. Moss covered 90% of this vegetated area. Vegetation productivity at the restored site was also enhanced with gross ecosystem photosynthesis under full light conditions significantly higher at the restored site at both moss and herbaceous plots by 2002. While this increase in vegetation productivity provided fresh substrate and resulted in higher CO 2 production potential for restored site peat, ecosystem respiration was similar to or lower than that at the nonrestored site for both bare peat and vegetated areas because of the generally wetter site conditions resulting from restoration. By upscaling chamber CO 2 exchange measurements to the ecosystem level, on the basis of the relative proportion of each surface cover type, we determined the site was a net sink of ∼20 ± 5 g C m −2 during the growing season only 2 years postrestoration. Combining our results with previous work on CH 4 emissions and dissolved organic carbon export, we suggest that this degraded peatland ecosystem will likely return to a net carbon sink in 6 to 10 years postrestoration.