Hydrology of fen systems

Sustainable recovery of groundwater fed fen vegetation and associated fauna requires waterlogging by restoring water management. That is why there has been a lot money invested in restoration measures in and around degraded fens. The emphasis of these measures was generally reduction of drainage within the nature reserve. An important knowledge gap is the question to what degree water management needs to be restored for the development of fen peat vegetation and the start of peat formation. A common bottleneck is that the water level dynamics in the restored fens are still too large after rewetting for the development of the desired peat-forming vegetation. The bottlenecks behind insufficient recovery of the groundwater level are not yet well known, because research into ground- and surface water flow patterns in rewetted fens has hardly been conducted. More insight into these bottlenecks is necessary in order to find the right control and management measures in the right areas, and in the right order

Keywords:ECOLOGY, HYDROLOGY

Disciplines:Physical geography and environmental geoscience