Hans Joosten

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• Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c.
• Professor Emeritus at Universität Greifswald

Wetscapes as sustainable future perspective for peatlands Peatlands are among the world’s most carbon-dense ecosystems and hotspots of carbon storage. Although peatland drainage causes strong greenhouse gas emissions, land subsidence and biodiversity loss, drainage-based agriculture and forestry on peatland are common. To maintain and restore thei...

Spaghnum paludiculture: a springboard to sustainable peatlands? Drained peatlands emit large amounts of greenhouse gases and cause downstream nutrient pollution. Rewetting aids in restoring carbon storage and sustaining the unique biodiversity of peatlands. However, rewetting for nature restoration is not always socio-economically feasible. As an a...

Various criteria to define blue carbon ecosystems were discussed with the definition of “coastal wetlands” in the IPCC 2013 Wetlands Supplement. This paper gives an overview of these considerations.

Peatland degradation causes a number of environmental problems ranging from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to subsidence and ecosystem loss. Degraded peatlands, covering just 0.3 % of Earth's land area (500,000 km²), disproportionately contribute 5 % of GHG emissions, exacerbating the climate crisis. Once degraded, restoring peatland ecosystem func...

Peatlands contain more carbon than the entire global forest biomass, but their importance has long been overlooked. Currently drained peatlands (on 0.4% of the world’s land area) cause greenhouse gas emissions that amount to almost 5% of the worldwide total. Most of these emissions come from lands used for drainage-based agriculture and forestry. T...

In 2011, MoorFutures® were introduced as the first standard for generating credits from peatland rewetting. We developed methodologies to quantify ecosystem services before and after rewetting with a focus on greenhouse gas emissions, water quality, evaporative cooling and mire-typical biodiversity. Both standard and premium approaches to assess th...

The EU Nature Restoration Law (NRL) is critical for the restoration of degraded ecosystems and active afforestation of degraded peatlands has been suggested as a restoration measure under the NRL. Here, we discuss the current state of scientific evidence on the climate mitigation effects of peatlands under forestry. Afforestation of drained peatlan...

While mapping peatlands worldwide remains an important task, capturing their status using earth observation technologies has received less attention. Approximately 500,000 km² of degraded peatland worldwide contribute an excessive 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Most human use of peatlands remains unsustainable and can disrupt the balance of...

Amazonia is believed to harbour the world's most extensive tropical peatlands, storing significant amounts of carbon and having high value for biodiversity conservation, climate regulation and human welfare. However, a comprehensive assessment is hampered by fragmentary knowledge of the locations of peat-covered areas and this, in turn, prevents th...

The Hyrcanian region is a biogeographic entity of high biodiversity and a centre of Arcto-Tertiary relict flora. A pollen record from the mid-elevation of the Alborz Mountains (northern Iran) reaching back to 20,000 cal BP reveals the Late Quaternary vegetation history of this globally important forest ecosystem. For the period 20,000–14,419 cal BP...

Lack of a shared vision has been identified as a major obstacle in transdisciplinary research involving both scientists and other stakeholders. Without a shared vision, the implementation of scientific findings is difficult. The diverse partners of collaborative research, however, imply a plurality in the valuation of nature and a need for delibera...

Drained peatlands emit large amounts of greenhouse gases and cause downstream nutrient pollution. Rewetting aids in restoring carbon storage and sustaining unique biodiversity. However, rewetting for nature restoration is socio-economically not always feasible. Cultivation of Sphagnum biomass after rewetting allows agricultural production. In the s...

Peatlands are among the world's most carbon-dense ecosystems and hotspots of carbon storage. Although peatland drainage causes strong carbon emissions, land subsidence, fires and biodiversity loss, drainage-based agriculture and forestry on peatland is still expanding on a global scale. To maintain and restore their vital carbon sequestration and s...

Sacred forests are of immense value for their ecosystem functions. Traditional indigenous conservation practices have helped to maintain biological diversity over centuries and have resulted in the preservation of some of the best patches of natural vegetation. Species that are endemic and restricted only to certain ecosystems find refuge in the mi...

Wetlands have long been drained for human use, thereby strongly affecting greenhouse gas fluxes, flood control, nutrient cycling and biodiversity1,2. Nevertheless, the global extent of natural wetland loss remains remarkably uncertain³. Here, we reconstruct the spatial distribution and timing of wetland loss through conversion to seven human land u...

Die Erforschung von Feuchtgebieten im historischen Kontext wirft Fragen auf, die ohne Kombination natur- und geisteswissenschaftlicher Methoden nicht beantwortbar sind. Hierbei bieten, bedingt durch Überlieferungsschwierigkeiten und terminologische Unklarheiten, die Kulturen in Vorderasien und am Mittelmeer eine besondere Herausforderung. Wir versu...

Es ist eine interessante wissenschaftsgeschichtliche und kulturhistorische Frage, wie die Römer Moore und andere Feuchtgebiete wahrgenommen haben und ob sie Torf kannten. Es gibt kein ursprüngliches lateinisches Wort für die Substanz Torf, aber das verwundert nicht: In den meisten Sprachen ist ein Wort für Torf erst recht spät entstanden. In den We...

Peatlands are unique and rare ecosystems that, despite covering only around 3-4% of the planet’s land surface, contain up to one-third of the world’s soil carbon, which is twice the amount found in the entire Earth’s forest biomass. Keeping this carbon locked away is absolutely critical for achieving global climate goals. However, about 12% of curr...

A large amount of unpublished palaeoecological and mire ecological data of the Dubring Mire (Dubringer Moor near Hoyerswerda in the German Federal State Saxonia) is only restricted available publicly. This paper initiates the revision and scientifical publication of the data, introduces the available material and presents first insights.

Sphagnum paludiculture farms, where Drosera species grow spontaneously under semi-natural conditions, may provide fresh Drosera raw material for the pharmaceutical industry as a sustainable alternative to collecting Drosera from natural peatlands. We collected and measured the fresh mass of all plants of Drosera rotundifolia and Drosera intermedia...

Biogeomorphic wetlands cover 1% of Earth’s surface but store 20% of ecosystem organic carbon. This disproportional share is fueled by high carbon sequestration rates and effective storage in peatlands, mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows, which greatly exceed those of oceanic and forest ecosystems. Here, we review how feedbacks between ge...

Remnants of a specimen of Plateumaris Thomson, 1859, probably P. discolor (Panzer, 1795), were found in a peat layer from a drained kettle hole in the Uckermark area (Brandenburg, Germany, 53°23'49.44"N 13°36'04.84"E). The peat, in which the remnants were found, was analysed for its pollen content to determine age and former site conditions. The re...

Peatlands cover about 400 million hectares (ha), or 3% of the land surface of our planet. Yet they store more carbon, more effectively and for longer periods, than any other ecosystem on land. Intact peatlands also provide essential ecosystem services such as regulating water cycles, purifying water, and supporting a wealth of biodiversity. Since p...

This Briefing Note presents key information on practical peatland rewetting and restoration on site. It formulates general guiding principles applicable to all peatland restoration practices and provides detailed information on a wide range of restoration techniques, including peatland rewetting by building blocks, bunds and screens and by reducing...

The Convention on Wetlands (The Convention) and other national, regional and global policy frameworks promote the restoration of degraded peatlands. Rewetting peatland to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is an important climate change mitigation strategy, and meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement may require rewetting of virtually all draine...

We studied a pristine, prominently patterned raised bog in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, to disentangle the complex interactions among plants and water and peat. The studied bog lacks complicating features often posed by other bogs. It is completely dominated by Sphagnum magellanicum, which covers all niches and growth forms, and is joined by only a...

Rewetting is the most effective way to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from drained peatlands and must significantly contribute to the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate within the land sector. In 2010–2013, more than 73 thousand hectares of fire-prone peatlands were rewetted in the Moscow Region (the hitherto largest rewetting...

Peatlands have been drained for land use for a long time and on a large scale, turning them from carbon and nutrient sinks into respective sources, diminishing water regulation capacity, causing surface height loss and destroying biodiversity. Over the last decades, drained peatlands have been rewetted for biodiversity restoration and, as it strong...

Drainage-base agriculture and forestry are key drivers of emissions from degraded peatlands. An important challenge of climate-oriented peatland management is an improved conservation of their huge carbon stocks. Paludiculture, the productive use of wet peatlands, is a promising land use alternative that reduces greenhouse gas emissions substantial...

In spite of the worldwide largest proportional loss of mires, Europe is a continent with important mire diversity. This article analyses the condition and protection status of European mire ecosystems. The overview is based on the system of European mire regions, representing regional variety and ecosystem biodiversity. We combined peatland distrib...

To understand the perception of wetlands by ancient Mesopotamians, it is crucial to have an understanding of the natural landscape "between the rivers". This paper provides an overview on the geomorphology of the region and the human-landscape interaction. In the course of time, starting in the early or mid-Holocene, the land “between the rivers” l...

Forest-peat fires are notable for their difficulty in estimating carbon losses. Combined carbon losses from tree biomass and peat soil were estimated at an 8 ha forest-peat fire in the Moscow region after catastrophic fires in 2010. The loss of tree biomass carbon was assessed by reconstructing forest stand structure using the classification of pre...

Sacred forests are of immense value for their ecosystem functions. Traditional indigenous conservation practices have helped maintaining biological diversity over centuries and have resulted in the preservation of some of the best patches of natural vegetation. Exclusive taxa find refuge in the micro-climatic conditions of sacred groves and many ra...

Round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia L.) is a rare bog species that is commonly collected for the European herbal market in the wild, leading to the destruction of its natural populations. The aim of this study is to compare sundew cultivation methods on Sphagnum lawn that meet the requirements of the pharmaceutical industry and could promote...

Peatlands cover 3% of the land, occur in 169 countries, and have—by sequestering 600 Gt of carbon—cooled the global climate by 0.6 °C. After a general review about peatlands worldwide, this paper describes the importance of the Great Vasyugan Mire and presents suggestions about its protection and future research. The World’s largest peatland, the G...

The Paris Agreement reflects the global endeavour to limit the increase of global average temperature to 2 °C, better 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels to prevent dangerous climate change. This requires that global anthropogenic net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are reduced to zero around 2050. The German Climate Protection Plan substantiates thi...

Land cover changes following rewetting of 73 thousand hectares of peatland after the severe 2010 peat fires in Moscow Region (Russia) were monitored using multispectral remote sensing. The results revealed a reduction in the area of bare peat and dry grasslands, the rapid expansion of willow and birch vegetation, and a steady increase in wet grassl...

Sphagnum farming can substitute peat with renewable biomass and thus help mitigate climate change. Large volumes of the required founder material can only be supplied sustainably by axenic cultivation in bioreactors. We established axenic in vitro cultures from sporophytes of 19 Sphagnum species collected in Austria, Germany, Latvia, the Netherland...

Sphagnum farming is paludiculture aiming to produce Sphagnum biomass as a sustainable alternative to peat in horticultural growing media. Here we focus on the habitat value of artificial Sphagnum farming sites for peatland species. We report results from seven years of biodiversity monitoring (2011–2018) in a 14 ha Sphagnum farm in north western Ge...

The Arctic is experiencing substantial warming with possibly large consequences for global climate when its large soil carbon stocks are mobilized. Yet the functioning of permafrost peatlands, which contain considerable amounts of carbon, is still not fully understood. Palaeoecological studies may contribute to unravelling this functioning but requ...

Global forest loss is highest in the tropical region, an area with high biological biodiversity. As some of these forests are part of indigenous forest management, it is important to pay attention to such management, its values and practices for better conservation. This paper focuses on sacred freshwater swamp forests of the Western Ghats, India,...

The dictionary ‘On the meaning of words’ was written by the Roman grammarian Marcus Verrius Flaccus (ca. 55 BCE – 20 CE) but has not been preserved. A summary (“epitome”) by Sextus Pompeius Festus (2nd century CE), which did survive in a heavily damaged state, was in turn further epitomised by Paul the Deacon (Paulus Diaconus, 8th century CE). The...

This report presents the results of the peatland mapping, carbon stock estimation, land use assessment and the evaluation of CO2 emissions avoidance potential in the Equatorial Nile (Nile Equatorial Lakes NEL and Sudd) and Blue Nile sub-systems (Ethiopia).

Integration of peatlands into land-use monitoring systems is central to the conservation of their carbon storage – be they conserved, degraded or restored. Healthy peatlands mitigate climate change, enhance adaptive capacity and maintain ecosystem services and biodiversity. Peatlands are starting to receive a high level of attention and the scienti...

Peatlands are strategic areas for climate change mitigation because of their matchless carbon stocks. Drained peatlands release this carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). Peatland rewetting effectively stops these CO2 emissions, but also re-establishes the emission of methane (CH4). Essentially, management must choose between CO2 emissi...

The agricultural use of drained peatlands leads to huge emissions of greenhouse gases and nutrients. A land-use alternative that allows rewetting of drained peatland while maintaining agricultural production is the cultivation of Sphagnum biomass as a renewable substitute for fossil peat in horticultural growing media (Sphagnum farming). We studied...

The cultivation of Sphagnum mosses reduces CO 2 emissions by rewetting drained peatlands and by substituting peat with renewable biomass. ‘Sphagnum farming’ requires large volumes of founder material, which can only be supplied sustainably by axenic cultivation in bioreactors. We established axenic in-vitro cultures from sporophytes of 19 Sphagnum...

Of all terrestrial ecosystems, peatlands store carbon most effectively in long-term scales of millennia. However, many peatlands have been drained for peat extraction or agricultural use. This converts peatlands from sinks to sources of carbon, causing approx. 5% of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect and additional negative effects on other ecosys...

Global forest loss is highest in the tropical region, an area with high biological biodiversity. As some of these forests are part of indigenous forest management, it is important to pay Forthcoming in Environmental Values. ©2020 The White Horse Press www.whpress.co.uk 2 attention to such management, its values and practices for better conservation...

Sphagnum biomass is a promising material that could be used as a substitute for peat in growing media and can be sustainably produced by converting existing drainage‐based peatland agriculture into wet, climate‐friendly agriculture (paludiculture). Our study focuses on yield maximization of Sphagnum as a crop. We tested the effects of three water l...

Of all terrestrial ecosystems, peatlands store carbon most effectively. However, many peatlands have been drained for peat extraction or agricultural use. This converts peatlands from sinks to sources of carbon, causing approx. 5% of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect and additional negative effects on other ecosystem services. Rewetting peatlands...

Peatlands are strategic areas for climate change mitigation because of their matchless carbon stocks. Drained peatlands release this carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). Peatland rewetting effectively stops these CO 2 emissions, but also re-establishes the emission of methane (CH 4 ). Essentially, management must choose between CO 2...

The reconstruction of the past development of peat- and wetlands is normally the task of a wide variety of biological and earth-scientific disciplines. An important source is, however, often overlooked: contemporary written accounts of eye-witnesses of these landscape types. Written records are generally considered to belong to the realms of lingui...

Except for the aquatic wetlands already designated under the Ramsar (Wetland) Convention, little is known about the flora and habitat ecology of mountain mire patches in the Hyrcanian forest of northern Iran. The present study describes the floristic composition and the life forms, chorology and habitat characteristics of plants at Chaman-e Kelar,...

The value of peatlands as archives for vegetation, landscape, climate, and human history is well known, but often neglected in conservation planning. Archive value is the potential to satisfy future (yet unknown) demands for information about the past. This study aims at assessing the comparative archive value of a set of peatlands, to identify the...

The arctic ice-wedge polygon mire landscape is under great threat by the changing climate. Yet, it is difficult to accurately predict how this landscape will develop because of the complex interaction of external and internal forcing, direct and indirect effects, and positive and negative feedback mechanisms, affecting frost and thaw processes, hyd...

The increasing global demand for vegetable oils has resulted in a significant increase in the area under oil palm in the tropics during the last couple of decades, and this is projected to increase further. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil discourages the conversion of peatlands to oil palm and rubber plantations. However, our understanding o...

_______________________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY Sphagnum farming-the production of Sphagnum biomass on rewetted bogs-helps towards achieving global climate goals by halting greenhouse gas emissions from drained peat and by replacing peat with a renewable biomass alternative. Large-scale implementation...

Sphagnum biomass is commercially harvested from semi-natural and natural peatlands. In this article we analyse the effects of harvesting Sphagnum by cutting off the top parts of the plants and leaving the cut stems to regenerate. We tested regrowth of Sphagnum palustre and Sphagnum papillosum in natural peatlands with high Sphagnum productivity in...

Sphagnum farming provides a sustainable wet land use alternative for drained peatland agriculture. Since 2011 Sphagnum has been cultivated on formerly drained bog grassland at Hankhauser Moor in northwest Germany. The site has been rewetted and is equipped with an automatic irrigation system which controls the inflow and outflow of water. We used m...

Sacred areas are the oldest form of habitat protection, and many of these areas contribute to biodiversity conservation. While sacred groves have received considerable scholarly attention, little is known about fresh water swamps in the Western Ghats, India and sacred swamps have largely been ignored. This paper provides a first overview testing th...

Weißtorf (schwach zersetzter Hochmoortorf) ist, neben Schwarztorf (stark zersetzter Hochmoortorf), der wichtigste Substratrohstoff und Produktionsgrundlage im modernen Gartenbau. Weltweit werden dafür jährlich 30 Mio. m³ Weißtorf, davon 3 Mio. m³ in Deutschland verbraucht. Dieser fossile Rohstoff wird aus Mooren abgebaut, und seine Verfügbarkeit si...

Based on the ‘European Mires Book’ of the International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG), this article provides a composite map of national datasets as the first comprehensive peatland map for the whole of Europe. We also present estimates of the extent of peatlands and mires in each European country individually and for the entire continent. A minim...

Smoke on Water is a Rapid Response Assessment that looks at peatland location, extent, threats and the policies to manage and protect them. The goal of this rapid response assessment, carried out on behalf of UN Environment and based on the efforts of more than 30 contributors, is to raise awareness about the importance of the world's peatlands and...

Door natte teelten (paludicultuur) in veenweidepolders kan een productief landschap gekoppeld worden aan groenblauwe diensten. Paludicultuur met lisdodde of riet kan op verschillende manieren bijdragen aan de verbetering van de kwaliteit van het oppervlaktewater, vooral door snelle opname van nutriënten en de daaropvolgende afvoer van biomassa. Doo...

Sphagnum farming allows sustainable and climate-friendly land use on bogs while producing a renewable substitute for peat in horticultural growing media. We studied Sphagnum productivity on an experimental Sphagnum culture established on a cut-over bog in Germany with strongly humified peat at the surface. Preparation of the site included levelling...

The first International Peat Congress (IPC) held in the tropics - in Kuching (Malaysia) - brought together over 1000 international peatland scientists and industrial partners from across the world (“International Peat Congress with over 1000 participants!,” 2016). The congress covered all aspects of peatland ecosystems and their management, with a...

Vegetation distribution and pollen deposition were studied in a complex of degraded ice-wedge polygon mires near Pokhodsk (NE Siberia) in order to obtain insight in the relation between actual vegetation and pollen deposition in microtopographic landscape elements. Pollen surface samples with 1 m spacing were collected along a transect and compared...

A previously unpublished pollen diagram from the late KLAUS KLOSS allows the reconstruction of vegetation history and mire development in the northwestern part of the Dubringer Moor, one of the most important mires of the German Federal State Sachsen. The diagram covers the final time-frame of the Weichselian Lateglacial and the complete Holocene,...

Large areas of peatlands have worldwide been drained to facilitate agriculture, which has adverse effects on the environment and the global climate. Agriculture on rewetted peatlands (paludiculture) provides a sustainable alternative to drainage-based agriculture. One form of paludiculture is the cultivation of Sphagnum moss, which can be used as a...

Joosten H. & Wichtmann, W. (2016): Das Moor, ein vielfältiger Landschaftstyp unter Druck. Aquaviva 3/2016 p 1- 9

Peatlands provide globally important ecosystem services through climate and water regulation or biodiversity conservation. While covering only 3% of the earth's surface, degrading peatlands are responsible for nearly a quarter of carbon emissions from the land use sector. Bringing together world-class experts from science, policy and practice to hi...