REFORMWATER- Reducing the effects of forest management to inland waters, is a new project lead by Prof. J. Pumpanen (WaterWorks2017 ERA-NET Cofund, April 1, 2019 – March 3, 2022).

The aim of this project is to quantify the effects of current management practices (harvesting and subsequent ditch network maintenance) on peatland forests on the transport of dissolved organic matter to aquatic systems and consequent greenhouse gas emissions. Also alternative forest management techiques such as continuous cover forestry to reduce the DOM load to inland waters will be studied.

The project is based on field experiments where the effects of different forest management techniques on water quality will be tested. Detailed laboratory experiments for determining the effect of DOM quality on greenhouse gas production from aquatic systems will be performed.

The project is based on multidisciplinary collaboration between foresters, soil scientists and limnologists from Finland (University of Eastern Finland, University of Helsinki), Sweden (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå)), Estonia (University of Tartu) and Ireland (University College Dublin.

Fieldworks in Finland (Paroninkorpi), 21-22. October 2019