Peatlands play an important role in the global methane (CH 4 ) cycle and models are key tools to assess global change effects on CH 4 processes. It remains unclear how well existing wetland modelling frameworks are suited to peatland questions. Therefore, we reviewed the published literature on 16 peatland and wetland models and reported spatial and temporal scales, spin-up periods for stabilization of different carbon pools,...

Aims Peat is used as a major ingredient of growing media in horticulture. Peat extracted from bogs can be acidic and low in nutrient availability and is therefore mixed with liming agents, nutrients, surfactants, perlite and so on. This study aims to estimate the rates at which raw peat and the modified peat (‘growing media’) decompose to release carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), to estimate the release of carbon (C) from liming agents...

Peatlands after drainage and extraction are large sources of carbon (C) to the atmosphere. Restoration, through re‐wetting and revegetation, aims to return the C sink function by re‐establishing conditions similar to that of an undrained peatland. However, the time needed to re‐establish C sequestration is not well constrained due to the lack of multi‐year measurements. We measured over 3 years the net ecosystem exchange of CO...

Permafrost thaw in peatlands has the potential to alter catchment export of dissolved organic carbon ( DOC ) and thus influence downstream aquatic C cycling. Subarctic peatlands are often mosaics of different peatland types, where permafrost conditions regulate the hydrological setting of each type. We show that hydrological setting is key to observed differences in magnitude, timing, and chemical composition of DOC export bet...

Many wetland ecosystems such as peatlands and wet tundra hold large amounts of organic carbon (C) in their soils, and are thus important in the terrestrial C cycle. We have synthesized data on the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) exchange obtained from eddy covariance measurements from 12 wetland sites, covering 1–7 years at each site, across Europe and North America, ranging from ombrotrophic and minerotrophic peatlands to wet tundra e...

Throughout the Holocene, northern peatlands have both accumulated carbon and emitted methane. Their impact on climate radiative forcing has been the net of cooling (persistent CO 2 uptake) and warming (persistent CH 4 emission). We evaluated this by developing very simple Holocene peatland carbon flux trajectories, and using these as inputs to a simple atmospheric perturbation model. Flux trajectories are based on estimates of...

Northern peatlands contain up to 25% of the world's soil carbon (C) and have an estimated annual exchange of CO 2 ‐C with the atmosphere of 0.1–0.5 Pg yr −1 and of CH 4 ‐C of 10–25 Tg yr −1 . Despite this overall importance to the global C cycle, there have been few, if any, complete multiyear annual C balances for these ecosystems. We report a 6‐year balance computed from continuous net ecosystem CO 2 exchange (NEE), regular...

In northern ecosystems, the onset and growth of spring photosynthesis may have an important influence on the annual carbon (C) budget, yet the controls have not been clearly identified, especially for peatlands. We used a 5‐year set of daily carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) exchange measurements derived from an eddy covariance tower located at Mer Bleue, an ombrotrophic bog near Ottawa, Canada, from March to May [day‐of‐year (DOY) 60–15...

Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) play important roles in peatlands, through their influence on plant production and peat decomposition rates and on redox reactions, respectively, and peatlands contain substantial stores of these two elements. Using peat N and S concentrations and dry bulk density and 210 Pb dating, we determined the rates of N and S accumulation over the past 150 years in hummock and hollow profiles from 23 ombrotr...

We measured net ecosystem CO 2 exchange (NEE) in Panamá over C 4 pasture plots that varied in grazing intensity. After adjusting for variation in light, there were noticeable effects of grazing‐related variables on CO 2 exchange that were largely dependent on the developmental stage of the plant canopy. Above‐ground productivity was positively related to grazing intensity ( r 2 =0.30). Two experimentally grazed fields had sign...