© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 85 Sphagnum production and decomposition in a restored cutover peatland

Natural peatlands represent a long-term sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), however, drained and extracted peatlands can represent a source of atmospheric CO2. The restoration of Sphagnum mosses on abandoned milled peatlands has the potential to sequester atmospheric CO2 thereby returning the peatland to a peat accumulating system. Micrometeorological and chamber measurements of net ecosystem CO2 exchange are proven methods for investigating production and decomposition processes in both natural, extracted, and restored peatlands. However, this approach is relatively expensive because of infrastructure and human resources that not only limits potential use for ecological managers but it limits the number of sites that can be monitored due to high spatial variability. Here we present crank wire and destructive sampling production measurements, litter bag decomposition measurements and measurements of net ecosystem CO2 exchange made in a restored peatland and natural peatland sites nearby. The objectives were to assess production and decomposition rates in the two systems as well as to compare the different measurements techniques. Estimates of Sphagnum fuscum production at a restored peatland, using the different methods, followed the trend: crank wire < destructive sampling < gas exchange, with the two last methods providing comparable estimates. Production estimates using crank wires in cutover peat surfaces with a thin newly formed Sphagnu