Comparison among Different Rewetting Strategies of Degraded Agricultural Peaty Soils: Short-Term Effects on Chemical Properties and Ecoenzymatic Activities

Abstract

In 2013, a pilot experimental field of about 15 ha was set up within the basin of Lake Massaciuccoli (Tuscany, Italy) in order to compare different management strategies—a paludicultural system (PCS), a constructed wetland system (CWS), a nearly-natural wetland system (NWS)—for peatland restoration after almost a century of drainage-based agricultural use (CS). After five years, changes in peat soil quality were investigated from a chemical, biochemical, and ecoenzymatic perspective. The soil in CS was mainly characterized by oxidant conditions, higher content of overall microbial activity, low levels of easily available phosphorus for vegetation, and medium total carbon content ranging from 25.0% to 30.7%. In PCS, the levels of total carbon and the content of bioavailable P were higher, while the oxidant conditions were lower compared to the other systems. As expected, the soils in CWS and NWS were characterized by the most reduced conditions and by the highest levels of arylsulphatase activity. It was noteworthy that soils in the NWS systems were characterized by the highest level of nonavailable P. Outputs from ecoenzymatic activity confirmed the physico-chemical and biochemical results.

Growing ‘Genovese’ and ‘Valentino’ Basil in Pots Using Peat Substrate Combined with Phytoremediated Sediment: Effects on Yield and Nutraceutical Content

“…This is because microorganisms are known to optimise their metabolite production when faced with limited nutrient resources, as described by Fujita et al [51]. Peat had the highest levels of acid phosphatase, indicating that P was the limiting nutrient under these conditions, as P availability is typically low in peatland [52]. Conversely, the trend for Aryl-S was the opposite, with higher values observed in TSs compared with peat.…”

Pros and Cons of Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Peatlands: Review of Possibilities

“…Rewetting is also reported to cause slight changes in the chemical composition of the peat. The quality and chemical composition of the water used for rewetting affects the efficiency of the rewetting of peatlands [55,71]. When water with high phosphorus concentrations is used for peat rewetting, nutrient leakage and eutrophication risks will increase [70,71].…”

“…The following section discusses technologies and processing processes for producing non-energy peat materials and products. Before peat can be used as a raw material in products or materials, peat must undergo chemical and thermal treatment processes [55,98,102]. Various methods can be applied to process non-energy peat, such as extraction, pyrolysis, hydrolysis, thermal dissolution, and chemical modification [95,150].…”

“…Both policy documents and the scientific literature outline several strategies and methods to restore peatlands and reduce GHG emissions. However, there are some knowledge gaps and contradictive views on which strategies may be the most effective and appropriate [54,55]. Particularly, it is true for EU countries where peat is used for energy production [29,47,[55][56][57].…”

“…However, there are some knowledge gaps and contradictive views on which strategies may be the most effective and appropriate [54,55]. Particularly, it is true for EU countries where peat is used for energy production [29,47,[55][56][57]. Existing peatland strategies do not always solve issues regarding the restoration and management of peatland in sufficient detail [49].…”