REWET (REstoration of WETlands to minimise emissions and maximise carbon uptake – a strategy for long term climate mitigation) – Open Lab at Ylpässuo in Kiuruvesi, Finland

In this presentation we introduce the REWET/EU-Horizon project (2022-2026) with a special focus on activities in Finland, Ylpässuo (Open Lab), coordinated by University of Eastern Finland (UEF). The aims of REWET is to improve our knowledge on the status of EU wetlands through seven Open Labs across Europe and modelling, monitor their benefits and trade-offs in terms of GHG emissions, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, analyse the degree to which these approaches related to wetlands are affected by different scenarios of climate change and contribute to the evidence on ecosystem services provided by restored wetlands and their long-term management as an investment with significant societal benefits, with special attention to biodiversity. The Finnish Open Lab is a minerotrophic open mire (11 ha), which has been affect by edge drains and forest ditching in the surrounding area for several decades. The site is conserved by The Natural Heritage Foundation after donation by UEF since 2020. Biodiversity of flora and fauna has been studied with ecological approaches (vegetation plots, Townes-style Malaise traps, butterfly and bumblebee transects, vertebrate counts) combined with metabarcoding for insects and remote sensing (drone surveys). Carbon and methane fluxes are measured with Eddy Covariance towers (see presentation by Liang et al.). Data has been collected for water quality (nutrients, other ions, conductivity, pH, DOC, elements, alkalinity) and water level (see presentation by Leiviskä et al.). The site is an important demonstration site for researchers and UEF students for learning biodiversity, species identification and carbon flux measurements. For example, we have produced data for Open database for species observations and identification (The Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility), covering plants, insects, birds, mammals and amphibians. The data from 24 vegetation survey plots indicate that the most common plant species are Sphagnum fallax , Sphagnum flexuosum , Sphagnum obtusum , Shagnum riparium and Menyanthes trifoliata . Over 50,000 specimens of invertebrates has been collected. In the next growing season, we aim to collect more detailed chamber-based data on methane emissions and integrate the data with the vegetation data.