Thursday, August 9, 2007

PS 67-187: The future of Irish peatlands: a delicate exercise in balancing scientific knowledge and management options

Florence Renou, University College Dublin

Peatlands once covered 16% of the land surface in Ireland but relatively few intact peatlands remain as most have been subject to human activity since early historic times. Irish peatlands are a unique natural resource that have been utilized in a variety of ways: domestic and industrial peat harvesting, agriculture, forestry, military training, recreation and only on a minor scale: conservation and restoration. The associated management practices can have significant effects on the vegetation, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrate population, microbial population but also the physical and chemical properties of the peat as well as the hydrological balance and carbon gas exchange. The BOGLAND project is a multi-disciplinary, nation-wide research project which aims to assess these effects and the general current condition, including level of degradation, of Irish peatlands and to monitor a range of restoration options in order to provide management strategies for the future of Irish peatlands. This has proven to be a delicate exercise as there is a need to increase the knowledge of current peatland environments before defining specific, desired objectives. This means increasing our understanding of reference conditions against which to assess peatland status and management practices. How do we draw management options when the reference conditions themselves vary from one peatland to another? The difficulties of keeping fundamental research of peatland in pace with demands for management programme, including conservation and restoration are presented.

See more of PS 67 - Restoration ecology
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See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)