Peatlands 2015

Excursus

Peat soils are often insufficiently taken into account in existing soil-function assessments due to their special position in the systematisation of soils, even though they are highly worthy of protection and have a high service capacity. In the research project "Berlin’s Peatlands and Climate Change", existing Berlin soil function concepts are supplemented by an ecosystem approach, and significant, readily determinable parameters for different ecosystem services are identified and combined into indicators. This allows different climate protection services of peat soils to be assessed and represented in a differentiated matter, and likewise their habitat, water retention, filtering and cooling services. They are thus a valuable addition to the comprehensive soil function assessment that was developed in the maps of the soil functions based on the map of the soil associations. Further details can be found in the magazine “Bodenschutz” (Klingenfuß et al. 2015) and on the project web site www.berliner-moorboeden.hu-berlin.de/index.php?lang=en.