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

加拿大泥炭产业及其协会(加拿大泥炭苔藓协会-CSPMA)将生态修复作为其首选的修复策略。泥炭地恢复试图通过使泥炭提取后恢复生态功能来解决泥炭地的环境影响和经济利用之间的矛盾。20年前启动的基于工业的研究计划成功地开发了一种沼泽(以泥炭沼泽为主)的恢复方法，但仍有一些沼泽(边缘地带)或沼泽类型的栖息地，即森林、盐碱地和块状切割的泥炭地，需要进一步研究，以实现良好的生态恢复。为可持续生产泥炭纤维而优化泥炭养殖技术也是CSPMA感兴趣的问题。此外，新的收获技术可能导致地下微营养泥炭和矿藏的暴露。对于这些地点，恢复到微营养泥炭地(沼泽)或湿润的草甸可能更可取。在所有这些类型的土地利用管理中，将进行测量，以评估不同生态系统功能的恢复，即泥炭地特有的植物生物多样性、自然水文状况和不同管理方案后的长期碳封存。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.