Reintroduction of fen plant communities on a degraded minerotrophic peatland

An approach has been developed to restore bogs after peat extraction. However, when sedge-peat layers are exposed, the minerotrophic remnant peat conditions require restoration towards a fen ecosystem. Three restoration techniques, all including rewetting actions, were tested to assist fen vegetation recovery. None of the restoration techniques was efficient at establishing fen bryophytes. However, for vascular plants, two techniques gave promising results in terms of species composition, although the vascular plant covers remained lower than in reference natural fens. Depending on the site conditions, we suggest applying two restoration techniques to restore peatlands in areas of exposed sedge peat. In areas where sparse covers of fen species may have spontaneously established, rewetting should be carried out to raise water level and create favourable conditions for their expansion. In areas covered with undesirable species or with inadequate topography for rewetting, surface peat should be remodeled and vegetation introduced. Since mechanized diaspore transfer did not result in a satisfactory cover of fen plants, other means of introduction could be considered, alone or in combination. A complementary fertilization experiment showed that P fertilization could be an effective solution to enhance the establishment of mechanically introduced plant diaspores.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author