Through peat extraction, and their use in agriculture and forestry, they are increasingly being transformed from carbon sinks to carbon sources.

Currently, most marshlands in Germany are used, to varying extents, in cultivation or as lawns. This generally requires drainage, and as a result the marshland dries out, the marsh surface sinks, and the peat layer shrinks. Oxygen finds its way into the previously waterlogged ground, and the peat begins to decompose and to mineralize. In the process nutrients and climate-altering gases such as carbon dioxide are released.

However not only their direct use by humans, but increasingly, global warming can lead to dehydration and destruction of marshlands. Marshlands represent a significant factor in the overall framework of the climate debate, because on the one hand their natural balance can be disturbed by potential climate changes, and on the other hand they themselves can contribute to climate change through the release of climate-altering gases with intensive use.

Improved Acceptance Through Research and Solutions

While the totality of all mass balance interaction in marshlands is not yet fully understood, the Fachgebiet Bodenkunde und Standortlehre der Humboldt-Universität (Soil Studies and Habitat Science Department of the Humboldt University), Berlin is conducting extensive research into this subject. Toward that end, projects supported by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt are yielding important contributions to our understanding of element dynamics.

Project Operation:
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
FG Bodenkunde und Standortlehre
Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 2
14195 Berlin
Telefon    030|2093-46486
Jutta.Zeitz@agrar.hu-berlin.de
www.agrar.hu-berlin.de/struktur/institute/nptw/bodenkstandortl

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