The study was inspired by the need to assess long-term metal retention in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. The long-term processes in landfills are poorly known due to the relatively short time that such landfills have been in existence. Natural analogues where similar metal binding processes could be expected were therefore sought for. The work described in this thesis aims to elucidate ...

The effect of a variety factors on the survival of several rhizobia strains on inoculants and inoculated seeds has been evaluated. Since the rhizobia strains showed different cell-density-evolution patterns on peat-based inoculants and on inoculated seeds, several inoculant formulations with highly effective Rhizobium/Bradyrhizobium strains (for Lupinus, Hedysarum, Phaseolus and Glycine max.) w...

11 Peatland ecosystems accumulate thick organic soil layers because plant production exceeds decomposition throughout the entire organic soil column (Fig. 1). Peatlands cover only about 2–3% of the Earth’s land surface but store around 25% of the world’s soil carbon1. They are most abundant at northern high latitudes (Fig. 2a), where they cover roughly 4,000,000 km2 of land1 and store an estima...

r a 200 .046 .: +44 19 all@durh Summary Water discolouration is a major management problem for UK water companies as a proportion of the supply relies on runoff from peat-covered catchments. Many peats have been drained using surface ditches but this has been shown to lead to more severe water discolouration. Drain-blocking is now actively encouraged in UK peatlands to promote peatland habitats...

Deep karst depressions with a large volume of water due to a poor water drainage system (caused by a clay layer, etc.) and with steeply sloping sidewalls paludificate in a special way. Peat formation begins with dead vegetative material (leaves, etc.) floating on the water's surface in the center of the karst lake. The peat grows laterally from the center of the depression to its edges and the ...

We examined the storage dynamics and isotopic composition of soil water over 12 months in three hydropedological units in order to understand runoff generation in a montane catchment. The units form classic catena sequences from freely draining podzols on steep upper hillslopes through peaty gleys in shallower lower slopes to deeper peats in the riparian zone. The peaty gleys and peats remained...

Wetlands are important providers of ecosystem services and key regulators of climate change. They positively contribute to global warming through their greenhouse gas emissions, and negatively through the accumulation of organic material in histosols, particularly in peatlands. Our understanding of wetlands' services is currently constrained by limited knowledge on their distribution, extent, v...

[1] This paper presents, for the first time, evidence to show that Calluna species are one causative factor of piping in blanket peat catchments. Ground-penetrating radar survey on 960 plots illustrated that piping was prevalent throughout blanket peats. However, soil pipe occurrence was significantly higher where bare peat (149 pipes/km) or Calluna (87 pipes/km) were present compared to other ...

Pore water and solid phase samples were collected from the upper 50 cm of a peat profile at four sites within a 10 m area in Kleinstuck Marsh, a minerotropic fen located in Kalamazoo, MI. Although the chosen sites are in close proximity to each other, they differ with respect to vegetation species and density. Pore water analyses for a suite of redox sensitive species (pH, alkalinity, dissolved...

Pineapples (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.) cultivation on drained peats could affect the release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere and also the leaching of dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Carbon dioxide emission needs to be partitioned before deciding on whether cultivated peat is net sink or net source of carbon. Partitioning of CO2 emission into root respiration, microbial respiration, ...