{"id":157,"date":"2026-03-25T13:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T11:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/?page_id=157"},"modified":"2026-04-01T09:24:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:24:51","slug":"research-aims","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/research-aims\/","title":{"rendered":"Research aims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The\u00a0Centre of\u00a0Excellence\u00a0in\u00a0Peatlands, Climate\u00a0Change and\u00a0Restoration studies the ongoing change in northern peatlands. We build understanding of how climate\u00a0change\u00a0impacts\u00a0the biodiversity\u00a0and climate responses of peat-rich ecosystems, and\u00a0how\u00a0upcoming\u00a0large-scale\u00a0restoration\u00a0in Finland and\u00a0elsewhere\u00a0in Europe will\u00a0affect\u00a0northern peatlands. The knowledge gained will be embedded into disaggregative decision-support methods, helping to make informed restoration decisions \u2014 particularly in cases where impacts on biodiversity and climate are in conflict. Our ambition is to <strong>renew peatland science<\/strong> by revealing controls behind ecosystem resilience and tipping-points, as well as vegetation and greenhouse gas dynamics and their interconnectedness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-1_Version_4_8_June-1024x427.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-114\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-1_Version_4_8_June-1024x427.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-1_Version_4_8_June-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-1_Version_4_8_June-768x320.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-1_Version_4_8_June-1536x641.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-1_Version_4_8_June-2048x854.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>To\u00a0reach our overall ambition, we combine\u00a0paleoecology,\u00a0remote\u00a0sensing, experimental ecological\u00a0research,\u00a0modeling, and\u00a0decision\u00a0support\u00a0methods\u00a0in a novel and original way. The pillar of our work consists of comprehensive mapping of the past, ongoing, and future pressures shaping northern peatlands&#8217; biodiversity and water table (WP1), carbon sink function (WP2), methane emissions (WP3) and biophysical feedbacks (WP4). These efforts will help us to define target states for restoration and assess the feasibility and consequences of restoration initiatives across northern Europe, Finland in particular (WP5). Finally, we aim to develop new decision-support tools and make the latest peatland science accessible to citizens (WP6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-2_Version_4_9_June-1024x465.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-115\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-2_Version_4_9_June-1024x465.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-2_Version_4_9_June-300x136.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-2_Version_4_9_June-768x349.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-2_Version_4_9_June-1536x698.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Figure-2_Version_4_9_June-2048x931.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our science is based on <strong>geographically and temporally extensive<\/strong> field observations. For example, we make use of peatland vegetation data from the <a href=\"https:\/\/mmm.fi\/en\/forests\/forestry\/forest-inventories\">Finnish National Forest Inventory<\/a> and from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sttinfo.fi\/tiedote\/70696742\/monitoring-study-completed-restoration-brings-peatland-vegetation-closer-to-pristine-state?lang=en\">Finnish peatland restoration network<\/a>. Furthermore, observed ecosystem-atmosphere greenhouse gas exchanges from our own <strong>field research platforms <\/strong>equipped with eddy covariance stations will be compared to international records through our broad network of collaborators and established flux data networks. To reveal short-term responses and causal relationships, we make use of both new and existing experiments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Peatresc_supersites_2026-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Peatresc_supersites_2026-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Peatresc_supersites_2026-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Peatresc_supersites_2026-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Peatresc_supersites_2026-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Peatresc_supersites_2026-992x558.png 992w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/Peatresc_supersites_2026.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"979\" height=\"866\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/peat2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-154\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/peat2.png 979w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/peat2-300x265.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/581\/2026\/03\/peat2-768x679.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 979px) 100vw, 979px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Centre of\u00a0Excellence\u00a0in\u00a0Peatlands, Climate\u00a0Change and\u00a0Restoration studies the ongoing change in northern peatlands. We build understanding of how climate\u00a0change\u00a0impacts\u00a0the biodiversity\u00a0and climate responses of peat-rich ecosystems, and\u00a0how\u00a0upcoming\u00a0large-scale\u00a0restoration\u00a0in Finland and\u00a0elsewhere\u00a0in Europe will\u00a0affect\u00a0northern peatlands. The knowledge gained will be embedded into disaggregative decision-support methods, helping to make informed restoration decisions \u2014 particularly in cases where impacts on biodiversity and climate [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1378,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-157","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Research aims - PeatResC - Centre of Excellence in Peatlands, Climate Change and Ecological Restoration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.uef.fi\/peatresc\/research-aims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research aims - PeatResC - Centre of Excellence in Peatlands, Climate Change and Ecological Restoration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The\u00a0Centre of\u00a0Excellence\u00a0in\u00a0Peatlands, Climate\u00a0Change and\u00a0Restoration studies the ongoing change in northern peatlands. We build understanding of how climate\u00a0change\u00a0impacts\u00a0the biodiversity\u00a0and climate responses of peat-rich ecosystems, and\u00a0how\u00a0upcoming\u00a0large-scale\u00a0restoration\u00a0in Finland and\u00a0elsewhere\u00a0in Europe will\u00a0affect\u00a0northern peatlands. 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