Multi-disciplinary approaches to monitoring and understanding mechanisms at active, degraded and restored blanket bog locations.

Here we use a variety of methods to build a conceptual understanding of processes that occur at active, degraded and restored locations on a blanket bog. The Garron Plateau contains the most extensive area of intact blanket bog in Northern Ireland, with an area of over 4650 ha. Stable isotope analysis in the solid, liquid and gas phases indicates that the active location suggests a closed system with limited isotopic fractionation, limited water movement and decomposition. The degrading location has a lower level of humification, and is depleted in 13C in the solid phase due to ingression of vascular plants. The restored location has high humification and enrichment of 13C and 15N in the solid phase, and D in the liquid phase. 13C and 18O in the gas phase and 18O in the liquid phase are depleted, as a result of microbially mediated gas production and rewetting. Principal component analysis of the chemistry also helped define processes at each location. Geo-electrical profiles at each location determined the normalized chargeability (ratio of resistivity and chargeability) and was compared with organic composition analysis of the solid and liquid phases. Results show that the degrading location is undergoing high rates of decomposition and loss of organic matter into the interstitial water, whereas the opposite is true for the active location