Quantifying ecosystem services of rewetted peatlands − the MoorFutures methodologies

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Authors

  • Franziska Tanneberger
  • Augustin Berghöfer
  • Kristina Brust
  • Jenny Hammerich
  • Bettina Holsten
  • Hans Joosten
  • Dierk Michaelis
  • Fiedje Moritz
  • Felix Reichelt
  • Achim Schäfer
  • Aaron Scheid
  • Michael Trepel
  • Andreas Wahren
  • John Couwenberg

In 2011, MoorFutures® were introduced as the first standard for generating credits from peatland rewetting. We developed methodologies to quantify ecosystem services before and after rewetting with a focus on greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, evaporative cooling and mire-typical biodiversity. Both standard and premium approaches to assess these services were developed, and tested in the rewetted polder Kieve (NE-Germany). The standard approaches are default tier 1 estimation procedures, which require little time and few, mainly vegetation data. Based on the Greenhouse gas Emission Site Type (GEST) approach, emissions decreased from 1,306 t CO2e in the baseline scenario to 532 t CO2e in the project scenario, whereas 5 years after rewetting they were assessed to be 543 t CO2e per year. Nitrate release assessed via Nitrogen Emission Site Types (NEST) was estimated to decrease from 1,088 kg N (baseline) to 359 kg N (project), and appeared to be 309 kg N per year 5 years after rewetting. The heat flux − determined with Evapotranspiration Energy Site Types (EEST) – decreased from 6,691 kW (baseline) to 1,926 kW (project), and was 2,250 kW per year 5 years after rewetting. Mire-specific biodiversity was estimated to increase from very low (baseline) to high (project), but was only low 5 years after rewetting. The premium approaches allow quantifying a particular ecosystem service with higher accuracy by measuring or modelling. The approaches presented here have been elaborated for North-Germany but can be adapted for other regions. We encourage scientists to use our research as a model for assessing peatland ecosystem services including biodiversity in other geographical regions. Using vegetation mapping and indicator values derived from meta-analyses is a cost-efficient and robust approach to inform payment for ecosystem services schemes and to support conservation planning at regional to global scales.

Original languageEnglish
Article number112048
JournalEcological Indicators
Volume163
Number of pages10
ISSN1470-160X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 06.2024

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The project \u2018Integrated Peatland Offset Standard: Certifying the ecological co-benefits of CO2 offsets from peatland rewetting\u2019 (2011-2013) was funded by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation with the support of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Germany. The work on N removal was partly conducted within the project 'CINDERELLA - Comparative analysis, integration and exemplary implementation of climate smart land use practices on organic soils' (2025-2028) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within FACCE ERA NET+. We also thank all participants of the MoorFutures Workshop 2013 in Berlin for fruitful discussions, especially our co-workers from the UK Peatland Carbon Code.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s)

    Research areas

  • Bioindication, Greenhouse gas emission, Organic soil, Peatland restoration, Proxy
  • Engineering