Dynamics of plant‐mediated organic matter and nutrient cycling following water‐level drawdown in boreal peatlands

If boreal peatlands face drought more often due to climatic warming, the responses of vegetation may drastically change the functions of the ecosystem. We assessed the effects of water‐level drawdown on plant‐mediated organic matter (OM) and nutrient fluxes in a chronosequence of undrained and drained, originally sparsely treed fens. The chronosequence mimicked the reduced growing season moisture predicted by current climate change scenarios. In a pristine state, OM and nutrient fluxes were characterized by annual cycling through graminoids and mosses. Water‐level drawdown initiated a “forest succession,” in which the OM and nutrient cycles shifted from being dominated by graminoids and mosses to dominance by arboreal vegetation in two decades. Simultaneously, the quantity and tissue type composition of annual litterfall, as well as the quantity and allocation of annual nutrient uptake, changed radically. The changes may have contrasting but as yet unexplored implications for the carbon and nutrient balances of these sites.