Public evening lecture by Dr. Kristin Steinfurth (University of Greifswald, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology) as part of the lecture series "WETSCAPES2.0"

In natural peatlands, peat accumulates and binds carbon. The drainage of peatlands leads to a continuous and irreversible change in the peat. Although the rewetting of drained peatlands restores the water saturation of the damaged peatland soil, rewetted peatlands differ fundamentally from natural, never drained peatlands. In this presentation, the differences between never-drained and rewetted peatlands will be examined and it will be shown that carbon can also be stored in rewetted peatlands and how this newly formed material, proto-peat, can be identified and quantified.

Kristin Steinfurth studied agricultural sciences at the University of Rostock and landscape ecology and nature conservation at the University of Greifswald. She received her doctorate from the University of Rostock in 2025 and has been working in the peatland research group of the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology at the University of Greifswald in the Collaborative Research Center WETSCAPES2.0 since April 2025. Her research areas include plant nutrition with a focus on phosphorus availability as well as peat regeneration after rewetting and the storage of nutrients, carbon and water in peat.

Moderation: Professor Dr. Gerald Jurasinski