Farm, restore and model: responsible management of peatlands for a sustainable Canadian horticultural peat industry

加拿大泥炭工业及其协会（加拿大泥炭苔藓协会- CSPMA）已将残余泥炭沉积物的生态恢复作为其恢复策略的首选。泥炭地恢复试图通过使泥炭提取后的生态功能恢复，解决泥炭地的环境影响与经济利用之间的冲突。20年前启动的基于行业的研究项目成功地开发了沼泽（泥炭地以泥炭属植物为主）的恢复方法，但仍有一些沼泽（边缘带）或沼泽类型的栖息地，即森林、盐碱地和块状泥炭地，需要进一步研究以实现良好的生态恢复。为可持续生产海藻纤维而优化海藻养殖技术也是CSPMA感兴趣的。此外，新的采收技术可能导致暴露下伏的矿化泥炭和矿藏。对于这些地方来说，恢复为富矿物质泥炭地（沼泽）或湿草地可能更可取。在所有这些类型的土地利用管理中，将进行测量以评价不同生态系统功能的恢复，即泥炭地的专门植物生物多样性、自然水文制度和不同管理选择后的长期碳固存。拟议的研究计划是泛加拿大的，并以可持续和负责任的泥炭资源开发的观点为指导。

The Canadian peat industry and its association (Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association - CSPMA) have promoted the ecological restoration of residual peat deposits as their first choice of rehabilitation strategies. Peatland restoration attempts to resolve the conflict between the environmental impacts and economical use of peatlands by enabling the return of ecological functions after peat extraction. Industry based research programs initiated 20 years ago successfully developed a restoration method for bogs (peatlands dominated by Sphagnum) but there is still some habitats within bogs (margin zone) or type of bogs, namely forested, saline and block-cut peatlands, in need of further research to achieve sound ecological restoration. Optimization of Sphagnum farming techniques for the sustainable production Sphagnum fibers is also of interest for the CSPMA. Moreover, new harvest techniques can lead to the exposure of the underlying minerotrophic peat and mineral deposits. For those sites, restoration towards a minerotrophic peatland (fen), or a wet meadow, may be more desirable. Within all those types of land use management, measurements will be conducted to evaluate the return of different ecosystem functions, namely the specialised plant biodiversity of peatlands, natural hydrological regime and long term carbon sequestration following different management options. The proposed research program is pan-Canadian and is guided by a perspective of sustainable and responsible development of the peat resources.