A model of gross primary productivity based on satellite data suggests formerly afforested peatlands undergoing restoration regain full photosynthesis capacity after five to ten years

Lees, Kirsten; Quaife, Tristan; Artz, Rebekka; Khomik, Myroslava; Sottocornola, Matteo; Kiely, Gerard; Hambley, Graham; Hill, Timothy; Saunders, Matthew; Cowie, Neil; Ritson, Jonathan; Clark, J. M.

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.03.040

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…In models which attempt to use vegetation indices to estimate peatland photosynthesis, the difference in slopes at different times of the year could be compensated for in a model that uses NDVI or EVI by adding a seasonal component, or a temperature component, as seen in Lees et al [47]. This method would allow a linear relationship between GPP and the vegetation index to be assumed, but would reduce the unrealistically high values of GPP estimated in the colder months.…”

Section: B Gppmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Spectral Indices to Estimate Water Content and GPP inSphagnumMoss and Other Peatland Vegetation

Lees

Artz

Khomik

et al. 2020

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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Peatlands provide important ecosystem services including carbon storage and biodiversity conservation. Remote sensing shows potential for monitoring peatlands, but most off-the-shelf data products are developed for unsaturated environments and it is unclear how well they can perform in peatland ecosystems. Sphagnum moss is an important peatland genus with specific characteristics which can affect spectral reflectance, and we hypothesized that the prevalence of Sphagnum in a peatland could affect the spectral signature of the area. This study combines results from both laboratory and field experiments to assess the relationship between spectral indices and the moisture content and GPP of peatland (blanket bog) vegetation species. The aim was to consider how well the selected indices perform under a range of conditions, and whether Sphagnum has a significant impact on the relationships tested. We found that both water indices tested (NDWI and fWBI) were sensitive to the water content changes in Sphagnum moss in the laboratory, and there was little difference between them. Most of the vegetation indices tested (the NDVI, EVI, SIPI and CIm)

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Section: B Gppmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Spectral Indices to Estimate Water Content and GPP inSphagnumMoss and Other Peatland Vegetation

Lees

Artz

Khomik

et al. 2020

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

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“…For comparison with the chamber and spectrometer data (TG1, see Section 2.7), the EC halfhourly data covering the same time periods as the chamber flux measurements were used, doubled to give an hourly timestep. For comparison with the TG model using MODIS data (TG2, see Section 2.7), the EC fluxes were averaged across 8-day periods and then multiplied to give daily values, following Lees, Quaife, et al (2019).…”

Section: Eddy Covariancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The existence of satellites with very fine spatial resolution (to tens of metres in freely accessible data) means that studies can now consider variation within a landscape, but the microtopography of blanket bogs is still at a scale that is too fine to be detectable from non-commercial satellite data (Becker et al, 2008). Models using satellite data to estimate carbon fluxes are being developed to cover large areas (Lees et al, 2018) and have recently shown successes in estimating carbon fluxes from peatland landscapes (Kross, Seaquist and Roulet, 2016;Lees, Quaife, et al, 2019), but there is still uncertainty over whether these models can adequately detect the variation from small-scale peatland heterogeneity (Zhang et al, 2007;Arroyo-Mora et al, 2018). The focus of this study is therefore to assess whether the small-scale variations in carbon fluxes due to microtopography can be detected using remote sensing data, and whether large scale estimates using these techniques are a reliable estimate of the average fluxes resulting from these mosaic landscapes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A Temperature and Greenness (TG) model is specifically considered in this study, as this has previously been shown to give good agreement with EC data over the same study area as used in this work (Lees, Quaife, et al, 2019). This model combines a measure of land surface temperature with a vegetation index, in this case the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), to give an estimate of Gross Primary Productivity (GPP).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the reliability of peatland GPP measurements by remote sensing: From plot to landscape scale

Lees

Khomik

Quaife

et al. 2021

Science of The Total Environment

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Estimates of peatland carbon fluxes based on remote sensing data are a useful addition to monitoring methods in these remote and precious ecosystems, but there are questions as to whether large-scale estimates are reliable given the small-scale heterogeneity of many peatlands. Our objective was to consider the reliability of models based on Earth Observations for estimating ecosystem photosynthesis at different scales using the Forsinard Flows RSPB reserve in Northern Scotland as our study site. Three sites across the reserve were monitored during the growing season of 2017. One site is near-natural blanket bog, and the other two are at different stages of the restoration process after removal of commercial conifer forestry. At each site we measured small (flux chamber) and landscape scale (eddy covariance) CO2 fluxes, small scale spectral data using a handheld spectrometer, and obtained corresponding satellite data from MODIS. The variables influencing GPP at small scale, including microforms and dominant vegetation species, were assessed using exploratory factor analysis. A GPP model using land surface temperature and a measure of greenness from remote sensing data was tested and compared to chamber and eddy covariance CO2 fluxes; this model returned good results at all scales (Pearson's correlations of 0.57 to 0.71 at small scale, 0.76 to 0.86 at large scale). We found that the effect of microtopography on GPP fluxes at the study sites was spatially and temporally inconsistent, although connected to water content and vegetation species. The GPP fluxes measured using EC were larger than those using chambers at all sites, and the reliability of the TG model at different scales was dependent on the measurement methods used for calibration and validation. This suggests that GPP measurements from remote sensing are robust at all scales, but that the methods used for calibration and validation will impact accuracy.

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“…In formerly drained, afforested areas on deep peat, restoration management (termed forest-to-bog restoration) is carried out to reverse the loss of ecosystem services and in the longer-term, can effectively raise the water table, to levels similar to those of open, intact bog (Gaffney et al 2018;Howson et al 2021) thus supporting the gradual recovery of native blanket bog vegetation assemblages (Anderson and Peace 2017;Hancock et al 2018), and enabling restoration areas to function as net carbon sinks (Hambley et al 2019;Lees et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Catchment water quality in the year preceding and immediately following restoration of a drained afforested blanket bog

et al. 2021

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The restoration of drained afforested peatlands, through drain blocking and tree removal, is increasing in response to peatland restoration targets and policy incentives. In the short term, these intensive restoration operations may affect receiving watercourses and the biota that depend upon them. This study assessed the immediate effect of ‘forest-to-bog’ restoration by measuring stream and river water quality for a 15 month period pre- and post-restoration, in the Flow Country peatlands of northern Scotland. We found that the chemistry of streams draining restoration areas differed from that of control streams following restoration, with phosphate concentrations significantly higher (1.7–6.2 fold, mean 4.4) in restoration streams compared to the pre-restoration period. This led to a decrease in the pass rate (from 100 to 75%) for the target “good” quality threshold (based on EU Water Framework Directive guidelines) in rivers in this immediate post-restoration period, when compared to unaffected river baseline sites (which fell from 100 to 90% post-restoration). While overall increases in turbidity, dissolved organic carbon, iron, potassium and manganese were not significant post-restoration, they exhibited an exaggerated seasonal cycle, peaking in summer months in restoration streams. We attribute these relatively limited, minor short-term impacts to the fact that relatively small percentages of the catchment area (3–23%), in our study catchments were felled, and that drain blocking and silt traps, put in place as part of restoration management, were likely effective in mitigating negative effects. Looking ahead, we suggest that future research should investigate longer term water quality effects and compare different ways of potentially controlling nutrient release.

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A model of gross primary productivity based on satellite data suggests formerly afforested peatlands undergoing restoration regain full photosynthesis capacity after five to ten years

Cited by 20 publications

References 57 publications

Using Spectral Indices to Estimate Water Content and GPP inSphagnumMoss and Other Peatland Vegetation

Using Spectral Indices to Estimate Water Content and GPP inSphagnumMoss and Other Peatland Vegetation

Assessing the reliability of peatland GPP measurements by remote sensing: From plot to landscape scale

Catchment water quality in the year preceding and immediately following restoration of a drained afforested blanket bog

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