Project leader: Dr. Anke Günther (University of Rostock)

Vegetation is a core layer of the Earth’s Critical Zone, a prerequisite for most of its life, as well as an important part of the nutrient and C cycles. Plants are both the product of and the cause for many of the processes studied in WETCAPES 2.0. Rewetting alters the plant species composition which mediates the water and GHG balance of peatlands by changing water transpiration as well as C sequestration and biomass decomposition rates, housing different soil microbial communities, and in the long-term determines the peat structure. Vegetation is therefore an indicator of site conditions, habitats and GHG fluxes. B4 will study vegetation within the peatlands at all experimental levels of WETSCAPES2.0 and link them to abiotic and biotic drivers in time and space. Vegetation surveys and analyses will reveal the complex spatial and temporal patterning in rewetted peatlands, contributing to the understanding of several processes explored in WETSCAPES 2.0, like C or water cycling.