CAREX

The rehabilitation of wetland ecosystem services is necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change and disturbances due to human activities on these sensitive environments. Sphagnum peat bogs, through their functions (carbon sink, biodiversity, water reservoir) play a crucial role, particularly in the regulation of the water and carbon cycle and thus of the climate on a global scale. The CAREX project aims to understand the functioning of a peat bog (La Guette; 18) that was restored in February 2014 following a hydrological dysfunction suffered for several decades and which resulted in a change in the vegetation cover and a decrease in the carbon storage capacity in the soil. Although the results of the ecological engineering work carried out have already highlighted the restoration trajectories of the ecosystem, it seems essential to us to deepen the analysis in order to validate key restoration indicators and their use in sustainable wetland management operations.

The first objective of CAREX is to validate key environmental variables as indicators of restoration of peatland functioning.

The second objective is to understand and model the dynamics of the carbon cycle in a context of changing plant biodiversity (in the short term) and climate change (in the long term).

Finally, the operation aims to develop an expert allowing a better statistical approach to the analysis of anthropogenic impacts (hydrological dysfunction and biodiversity change) on the structure and functioning of peatland ecosystems.