Peatland protection in general
Peatlands only cover around 3% of the world's land area, but contain twice as much carbon in their peat as the entire biomass of all the forests on our planet. Natural and wet, they remove around 150 - 250 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere worldwide every year and thus act as a carbon sink.
However, if a peatland is drained, oxygen enters the peat and CO2 and often also N2O are emitted. Drained peatlands cause disproportionately high emissions. At 2 gigatonnes of CO2 per year, they are responsible for almost 5% of global CO2 emissions.
In Germany, drained peatlands only account for around 7% of agricultural land. However, they are responsible for 99% of CO2 emissions from agricultural soils and 41% of all emissions from agriculture as a whole. In a peatland-rich federal state such as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, drained peatlands are the largest single source of greenhouse gases, emitting around 6.2 million tonnes of CO2 eq. per year (Hirschelmann et al. 2020).
In addition to their importance for the climate, wet moors play a crucial role for biodiversity. They provide unique habitats for species that have adapted to the wet and special conditions and are often the last near-natural refuges for rare and endangered species. In addition, near-natural, wet and rewetted peatlands provide many other ecological services for society (Bonn et al. 2016), such as the storage of pollutants and the regulation of the local climate and water balance.
The protection of natural peatlands is of crucial importance to us all. That is why the Förderverein für Landschaft und Naturschutz Devin e.V. is particularly concerned about the preservation and maintenance of the Kesselmoors in the nature reserve.
Sources and links:
https://www.greifswaldmoor.de/moore.html
https://www.bund.net/themen/naturschutz/moore-und-torf/
https://www.bfn.de/oekosystemleistungen-0
However, if a peatland is drained, oxygen enters the peat and CO2 and often also N2O are emitted. Drained peatlands cause disproportionately high emissions. At 2 gigatonnes of CO2 per year, they are responsible for almost 5% of global CO2 emissions.
In Germany, drained peatlands only account for around 7% of agricultural land. However, they are responsible for 99% of CO2 emissions from agricultural soils and 41% of all emissions from agriculture as a whole. In a peatland-rich federal state such as Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, drained peatlands are the largest single source of greenhouse gases, emitting around 6.2 million tonnes of CO2 eq. per year (Hirschelmann et al. 2020).
In addition to their importance for the climate, wet moors play a crucial role for biodiversity. They provide unique habitats for species that have adapted to the wet and special conditions and are often the last near-natural refuges for rare and endangered species. In addition, near-natural, wet and rewetted peatlands provide many other ecological services for society (Bonn et al. 2016), such as the storage of pollutants and the regulation of the local climate and water balance.
The protection of natural peatlands is of crucial importance to us all. That is why the Förderverein für Landschaft und Naturschutz Devin e.V. is particularly concerned about the preservation and maintenance of the Kesselmoors in the nature reserve.
Sources and links:
https://www.greifswaldmoor.de/moore.html
https://www.bund.net/themen/naturschutz/moore-und-torf/
https://www.bfn.de/oekosystemleistungen-0
