Corporeality : A methodological study of supporting creativity in futures workshops

In futures studies creativity is an essential element needed in imagining and examining the different possible futures to be. Futures imaging, creating options and possibilities of futures, can play a significant role as a cultural force for defining goals. Futures workshops is a regularly used participatory futures method where collective futures imagination is utilised. There are diverse ways to support creativity in futures workshops but a use of corporeal, bodily experiences or multisensory elements for supporting creativity in them is unusual. Corporeality is linked to creativity via concepts of silent and kinaesthetic knowledge where experience and action have important role in knowledge formation. This study is examining the potential of corporeal and multisensory practices in promoting creative futures thinking in the futures workshops method and the interconnectedness of the workshop’s theme and creative practices. This is a qualitative research. A process of two futures workshops from planning to the results with two questionnaires to the participants forms the main source for this study. This is supported by six interviews. The workshops called Papua pataan ja peltoon were providing material for a research network called Kasvunpaikat which created a framework of legumes and sustainability to the workshops. This research was approached from phenomenological perspective emphasising perception, experiential knowledge and corporeality. Creativity in groups and futures research concepts of alternative futures, preferable futures and images of futures create the theoretical frame together with the phenomenology. Corporeal and multisensory activities in the futures workshops are proven useful and potential. They assist in building creative atmosphere for the group works, produce a new kind of silent, embodied knowledge and particularly inspire the participants for futures making. The participants reported several actions after the workshops within the framework of legumes and sustainability. These results evidently indicate the importance of positive multi-layered experiences in supporting commitment to make better futures. The experiences of sharing, learning and the interaction of intellectual, emotional and corporeal are all valuable in creating better futures. Developing further the use of phenomenological perspectives in futures research the experiential, silent, embodied knowledge can be better considered in the context of futures

Fire pattern in a drainage-affected boreal bog

Fire is an important natural disturbance element in the boreal zone, not only in the forested areas but also wetter peatland ecosystems. Predicted climate warming is expected to cause a moderate water-level drawdown in northern peatlands, which might result in increased frequency and severity of fires in boreal peatlands because of increase in fire-loading. We surveyed the fire pattern and the impact of drainage to the fire pattern on partly drained and pristine parts of a boreal raised bog using three sampling transects reaching from drainage-affected area to a pristine, fire-impacted bog area. We detected that dry bog hummock surfaces provided spreading routes for fire while hollow surfaces stayed almost intact. Drainage had promoted succession that lead to dominance of hummock vegetation. The lowered water level and abundance of hummock surfaces typical to the drainage-affected area was favourable for fire. The results suggest an increase in fire impact following drainage and that under changing climate bogs may become more vulnerable for fire.Peer reviewe

A new model of Holocene peatland net primary production, decomposition, water balance, and peat accumulation

Peatland carbon and water cycling are tightly coupled, so dynamic modeling of peat accumulation over decades to millennia should account for carbon-water feedbacks. We present initial results from a new simulation model of long-term peat accumulation, evaluated at a wellstudied temperate bog in Ontario, Canada. The Holocene Peat Model (HPM) determines vegetation community composition dynamics and annual net primary productivity based on peat depth (as a proxy for nutrients and acidity) and water table depth. Annual peat (carbon) accumulation is the net balance above- and below-ground productivity and litter/peat decomposition – a function of peat hydrology (controlling depth to and degree of anoxia). Peat bulk density is simulated as a function of degree of humification, and affects the water balance through its influence on both the growth rate of the peat column and on peat hydraulic conductivity and the capacity to shed water. HPM output includes both time series of annual carbon and water fluxes, peat height, and water table depth, as well as a final peat profile that can be “cored” and compared to field observations of peat age and macrofossil composition. A stochastic 8500-yr, annual precipitation time series was constrained by a published Holocene climate reconstruction for southern Quebec. HPM simulated 5.4 m of ´ peat accumulation (310 kg C m−2 ) over 8500 years, 6.5% of total NPP over the period. Vascular plant functional types accounted for 65% of total NPP over 8500 years but only 35% of the final (contemporary) peat mass. Simulated age-depth and carbon accumulation profiles were compared to a radiocarbon dated 5.8 m, c.9000-yr core. The simulated core was younger than observations at most depths, but had a similar overall trajectory; carbon accumulation rates were generally higher in the simulation and were somewhat more variable than observations. HPM results were sensitive to centuryscale anomalies in precipitation, with extended drier periods (precipitation reduced ∼10%) causing the peat profile to lose carbon (and height), despite relatively small changes in NP

Literature review on testate amoebae as environmental indicators and as a functional part of the microbial community in northern peatlands

Funding Information: This work is supported by the Academy of Finland (project codes: 337549, 330840). We thank David Wilson for polishing the English, Kimmo Tolonen for help in finding old publications and Edward Mitchell for his valuable advice on testate amoeba nomenclature. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, IMCG and IPS. All rights reserved.In this review we assess past and current trends in the use of testate amoebae in peatland science, concentrating mainly on studies conducted in northern peatlands. We also discuss the potential of testate amoebae for future research. Testate amoebae are unicellular protists that are covered by protective tests which are easily identifiable and are stored in peat over millennia. Testate amoeba species are specialised to live in a thin water film coating the mosses that creates different microhabitats for species varying in size and shape. They are therefore considered good indicators for hydrology, in particular. In peatlands they represent dominant consumers in the microbial food web, but mixotrophic species also contribute to photosynthesis. Due to their functional role in peatland microbial communities, and as related to challenges in identification and taxonomy, there has been increasing interest towards understanding their functional traits. We suggest that more fundamental research about testate amoeba taxonomy, autecology and functional ecology is needed, but at the same time we can conclude that testate amoebae are a useful tool for contemporary topics in peatland science, including climate-induced changes in peatland functioning and peatland restoration.Peer reviewe

Cattle dung can increase CH4 production and influence the methanogen community of rewetted peat soils

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Are high CH4 emissions from restored Central European peatlands due to earlier methanogen transplantation through manure?

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Vegetation structure and photosynthesis respond rapidly to restoration in young coastal fens

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Plant mediated methane efflux from a boreal peatland complex

Purpose Aerenchymous plants are an important control for methane efflux from peatlands to the atmosphere, providing a bypass from the anoxic peat and avoiding oxidation in the oxic peat. We aimed to quantify the drivers of aerenchymous peatland species methane transport and the importance of this process for ecosystem-scale methane efflux. Methods We measured seasonal and interspecies variation in methane transport rate per gram of plant dry mass at a boreal fen and bog, which were upscaled to ecosystem-scale plant methane transport. Results Methane transport rate was better explained by plant species, leaf greenness and area than by environmental variables. Leaves appeared to transport methane even after senescence. Contrary to our expectations, both methane transport rate and the proportion of plant transport were lower in the fen (with greater sedge cover) than in the bog site. At the fen and bog, average methane transport rate was 0.7 and 1.8 mg g(-1) d(-1), and the proportion of seasonally variable plant transport was 7-41% and 6-90%, respectively. Species-specific differences in methane transport rate were observed at the ecosystem-scale: Scheuchzeria palustris, which accounted for 16% of the aerenchymous leaf area in the fen and displayed the greatest methane transport rate, was responsible for 45% of the ecosystem-scale plant transport. Conclusion Our study showed that plant species influence the magnitude of ecosystem-scale methane emissions through their properties of methane transport. The identification and quantification of these properties could be the pivotal next step in predicting plant methane transport in peatlands.Peer reviewe