Dear colleagues,

Depending on water and land management, the possible contribution of peatlands to climate and water protection is much higher than that of other ecosystems. Many scientists agree: Peatlands should to be wet to fulfil their ecological function. New management approaches that combine peatland rewetting with agriculture or forestry, so called 'paludiculture', could supplement restoration measures. A mosaic of paludiculturally used peatlands with peatlands restored primarily for nature conservation purposes is the future multifunctional and sustainable peatland landscape - the vision of 'WETSCAPES'. 

As we are just at the beginning of implementing paludicultures, understanding of the biogeochemistry and ecology of these novel ecosystems is still largely lacking. A better understanding of the ecosystem functioning und the underlying processes is the basis for a sustainable use of wet landscapes. As a collaborative research project of the Universities of Greifswald, Partner in the Greifswald Mire Centre, and Rostock, WETSCAPES unites research on turnover processes at peatlands and coastal sites in NE-Germany under the regional excellence initiative in 2017-2021.

The international WETSCAPES Conference that will be held September 10-13, 2019 in Rostock, Germany, brings together researchers and practitioners that work on any type of fen peatland or on coastal non-peatland wetlands - pristine, artificially drained and rewetted. Experience of agricultural scientists, soil scientists, ecologists, and practitioners from agriculture, forestry, nature conservation, landscape planning, water engineering and other fields related to peatland management will be exchanged.

Conference topics:

Greenhouse gas exchange in space and time
Element cycling and export
Peatland bio-hydrology
Plant growth and decomposition
Microbial pathways
Paleoecological methods in restored peatlands
Legacy of degradation in biotic communities
Mapping with GIS and remote sensing

Make sure to be part of it.
Abstract submission and more information is available at www.wetscapes.de/conference.

Feel free to pass this information on to colleagues who might be interested.

With kind regards,

Prof. Dr. Nicole Wrage-Mönnig (speaker of the WETSCAPES consortium)

More Information:
www.wetscapes.de
www.greifswaldmoor.de

Contakt:
WETSCAPES project coordination
Dr. Franziska Schmacka; wetscapes@uni-rostock.de

Greifswald Mire Centre
Dr. Franziska Tanneberger; franziska.tanneberger@greifswaldmoor.de