Vegetation Dynamics, Productivity, and Carbon Stock in Plant Matter in the Drained Berkazan-Kamysh Peatland (Bashkir Cis-Urals) After Rewetting

Peatlands store huge amounts of soil carbon and play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Drained peatlands stop accumulating carbon and become a source of carbon emissions. Rewetting is an effective method used to restore the ecological functions and carbon sequestration capacities of previously drained peatlands. The eutrophic Berkazan-Kamysh peatland, located in the forest–steppe zone of Bashkir Cis-Urals (the Republic of Bashkortostan), was drained in the 1970s, and since 2017, it has been undergoing rewetting. The aim of this work is to assess and quantify above- and belowground phytomass and its associated carbon pool, as well as to study the dynamics of the vegetation in the Berkazan-Kamysh peatland after rewetting. Vegetation mapping was performed and the areas of the main plant communities were calculated using the Random Forest method. It was found that, over the 7 years from the start of rewetting, the total area of hygro- and hydrophytic mire communities increased almost 3-fold (from 218 to 608 ha). During the same time, the area of meadow communities decreased by half (from 808.0 to 398.9 ha). The areas occupied by helophytic communities of tall graminoid plants ( Phragmites australis and Typha angustifolia ) have increased 10-fold and have begun to occupy more than 40% of the total area of the peatland. The aboveground phytomass of these types of plant communities can reach 1500–2000 g m −2 . Helophytization and other changes in vegetation composition led to a general increase in the above ground phytomass of the peatland of more than twofold.