Influence of rewetting on NO emissions in three different fen types.

Unlabelled: In recent years, many peatlands in Europe have been rewetted for nature conservation and global warming mitigation. However, the effects on emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (NO) have been found to be highly variable and driving factors are poorly understood. Therefore, we measured NO fluxes every two weeks over three years on pairs of sites (one drained, one rewetted) of three important peatland types in North-Eastern Germany, namely, percolation fen, alder forest and coastal fen.

Application methods of tracers for NO source determination lead to inhomogeneous distribution in field plots.

Source determination of NO has often been performed using stable isotope incubation experiments. In situ experiments with isotopic tracers are an important next step. However, the challenge is to distribute the tracers in the field as homogeneously as possible.