Abstract We restored small downstream sections of forestry-drained peatland catchments for use as wetland buffer areas and studied the effects of their restoration on the exports of nitrogen, phosphorus, dissolved organic carbon, and dissolved aluminium and iron. Even though the buffer areas were small relative to their catchment areas (0.5–3.5%), buffer restoration clearly increased pollutant exports. Thus, even though restored buffer areas proved later to be efficient in retaining pollutants from their upstream catchment area, turning from an initial restoration-induced pollutant source to their net sink may take a long time. In one restored buffer, the whole concept of restoration to improve water quality was judged questionable due to significantly deteriorated water quality. We presented a hypothesis that high iron content in peat may be a common denominator for the sites with high carbon and organic nutrient exports after restoration of forestry-drained peatlands. We conclude that it may not always be reasonable to restore drained peatlands for use as wetland buffers due to high initial pollution exports.

中文翻译：

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水质管理困境：恢复用作湿地缓冲区的林业排水泥炭地的养分、碳和重金属出口增加

摘要 我们修复了林业排水泥炭地集水区的下游小段，用作湿地缓冲区，并研究了它们的修复对氮、磷、溶解有机碳以及溶解铝和铁输出的影响。尽管缓冲区相对于其集水区（0.5-3.5%）较小，但缓冲区恢复明显增加了污染物出口。因此，即使后来证明恢复的缓冲区在保留上游集水区的污染物方面是有效的，但从最初的恢复引起的污染物源转变为净汇可能需要很长时间。在一个恢复的缓冲区中，由于水质显着恶化，整个恢复以改善水质的概念被认为是有问题的。我们提出了一个假设，即在恢复林业排水的泥炭地后，泥炭中的高铁含量可能是高碳和有机养分输出地点的共同特征。我们得出的结论是，由于初始污染出口量高，恢复排水的泥炭地用作湿地缓冲区可能并不总是合理的。