From pole to pole, peatlands contain up to 30% of the world’s soil carbon pool, illustrating their role in the global carbon cycle. Currently peatlands are under various pressures such as changing climate, land-use or nutrient loading with unknown consequences for their functioning as carbon sinks and stores and the uptake or release of the greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Simultaneously, increasing amount of restoration activities, aiming to return peatlands back to their original state are ongoing. It is, however, not clear how the carbon reservoir will react to these pressures and how resilient these ecosystems are. This session will focus on the observed or predicted changes on the biogeochemistry at peatlands, caused by climate change, nutrient loading or land-use. We invite studies concentrating, for example, on the effects of climate change on GHG flux or nutrient dynamics on pristine and managed peatlands, impact of drainage or restoration and subsequent vegetation succession on biogeochemistry, atmosphere-biosphere interaction, or studies on carbon stock changes demonstrating the impact of land-use or climate change. Both experimental and modeling studies are welcomed.

Solicited speakers:
Nigel Roulet, Professor, McGill University, Canada:
"Can continental bogs withstand the pressures from climate change?"

Bärbel Tiemeyer, Dr, Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Braunschweig, Germany
"Greenhouse gas fluxes from drained organic soils - a synthesis of a large dataset"

Torben Christensen, Professor, Lund University, Sweden
"Reducing uncertainty in methane emission estimates from permafrost peatlands"