Mitigation of peat extraction impacts by a new peat harvesting method protecting the peatland stored solid carbon

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Peat extraction for the production of horticultural substrates is a well-established industry in Canada. However,the current method used for peat extraction depletes the long-term stored carbon (C) contributing to climatechange, having a negative impact on the social acceptability of using peat in gardening and horticulture.Premier Tech Horticulture, a world leader in peat production and distribution, understands that C emissionsmust be significantly reduced or halted. With that aim, Premier Tech Horticulture has pioneered a novelharvesting method, named the "acrotelm-harvesting method". Because the new peat cutting method does notrequire any draining of the peatlands and only harvests the top subsurface of the peat (~ 10 cm) leaving thesurface vegetation intact; we suppose that the long-term stored peat will remain intact (objective 1). Moreover,recent research suggests that this harvesting method could be optimized by reducing peat decomposition bystrengthening the mechanism of 'enzymic latch'. Objective 2 will test the effect of phenolic compoundadditions to slow down decomposition within a large-scale field experiment. Additionally, the potential of thisnew harvesting method to maintain flora and fauna habitats will be assessed (objective 3), as it aims to harvestpeat biomass on a cyclical, sustainable, and optimized manner. If the new peat harvesting method proves to besuccessful in protecting the long-term storage of C from peatland, at least three very positive outcomes willemerge for the whole peat industry: 1) a significant reduction in C emissions mitigating climate change, 2) theachievement of social acceptability for peat use (consumers), and 3) the creation of new jobs and opportunitiesto sell specialized harvesting equipment in Canada and globally.