Although peatlands cover only about 3% of the Earth's surface, they store roughly one third of the global soil organic carbon. They also play a key role in water regulation, flood attenuation, and the conservation of rare and threatened species. Centuries of drainage, peat extraction, agricultural conversion, deforestation, grazing and burning (a trend that is now being compounded by climate change) have degraded a large proportion of these ecosystems, turning long-term carbon sinks into active carbon sources. Reversing this trend has therefore become an explicit policy objective. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation sets out binding targets for restoring and rewetting drained organic soils. Meanwhile, the European Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry) Regulation, national greenhouse gas inventories and voluntary carbon codes all stipulate that the extent, condition and change of peatlands must be consistently and repeatedly documented over large areas. However, meeting these requirements remains a scientific challenge. Peatland boundaries are often poorly mapped or misclassified in land cover databases. Ecohydrological condition is difficult to observe directly. Furthermore, degradation and recovery evolve over years to decades, and field networks are sparse in the remote regions where peatlands are most extensive.
The aim of this session is to bring together the full range of approaches used to observe, quantify and interpret peatland extent, condition and dynamics, and to connect them to ecosystem functioning, carbon accounting and management. Contributions are welcome on the following topics, but not limited to: mapping and inventories of peat soils, including updating and validating existing databases; optical, multispectral, hyperspectral and thermal Earth Observation (EO); LiDAR, UAV and airborne surveys; airborne and radiometric; SAR backscatter, coherence, polarimetry and InSAR surface motion; multi-source data fusion and time-series analysis; in-situ monitoring of water tables, peat properties and greenhouse gas fluxes; ecohydrological modelling; and the assessment of rewetting and restoration effectiveness. Studies dealing with all peatland types and climatic settings, from boreal and permafrost peatlands to temperate blanket bogs, mountain mires, coastal and tropical peatlands, and at all scales, from single sites to continental products, are equally welcome.