On the 4-6th October 2022, Simon Caporn, Syliva Toet and Luke Andrews attended the IUCN UK Peatland conference. Results that they presented there have opened up a new line of research which will be explored in a NERC DTP funded PhD studentship which is open for applications.
The IUCN UK Peatland Programme conference in Aberystwyth in October 2022 was the ideal place to present the research yielded from Cors Fochno (aka Borth bog). This was done by a field site visit, and a presentation delivered by Luke Andrews (who recently earned a PhD for his work here).
On the visit, the site manager Justin Lyons (Natural Resources Wales) demonstrated the splendour of this raised bog; one of the best in England and Wales. Cors Fochno is unusual for the large expanse of uncut bog and the broad cover of the beautiful Sphagnum pulchrum mixed with occasional hummocks of rarities in this part of the country, Sphagnum beothuk and Sphagnum austinii.
It was over a decade ago when Nancy Dise and Simon Caporn, with post-doc researchers Richard Payne and James Rowson set-up this experiment with support from Natural Resources Wales. The goal is to investigate the likely impacts of climate change. Small plots have been warmed continuously since 2010 using passive warming open top chambers. Drought was simulated in other plots for four weeks in the summer by a pumped water table drawdown in 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2019. A combined drought and warming treatment was also tested, and the three treatments were compared with a control.
Results showed that warming reduced both carbon dioxide accumulation and methane emissions, and when combined with drought, it caused the bog to become a net carbon source. Experimentally warmed, and combined warmed and droughted treatments drove significant increases in ericaceous shrubs but Sphagnum was unaffected.
A fresh line of research is now planned to understand the soil, plant and microbial processes regulating carbon balance under climate change conditions in this habitat. This will be enabled through a NERC DTP funded PhD studentship supervised by Dr Sylvia Toet currently being advertised at the University of York (Application deadline: 13 January 2023).
