The restoration of drained afforested peatlands, through drain blocking and tree removal, is increasing in response to peatland restoration targets and policy incentives. In the short term, these intensive restoration operations may affect receiving watercourses and the biota that depend upon them. This study assessed the immediate effect of ‘forest-to-bog’ restoration by measuring stream and river water quality for a 15 month period pre- and post-restoration, in the Flow Country peatlands of northern Scotland. We found that the chemistry of streams draining restoration areas differed from that of control streams following restoration, with phosphate concentrations significantly higher (1.7–6.2 fold, mean 4.4) in restoration streams compared to the pre-restoration period. This led to a decrease in the pass rate (from 100 to 75%) for the target “good” quality threshold (based on EU Water Framework Directive guidelines) in rivers in this immediate post-restoration period, when compared to unaffected river baseline sites (which fell from 100 to 90% post-restoration). While overall increases in turbidity, dissolved organic carbon, iron, potassium and manganese were not significant post-restoration, they exhibited an exaggerated seasonal cycle, peaking in summer months in restoration streams. We attribute these relatively limited, minor short-term impacts to the fact that relatively small percentages of the catchment area (3–23%), in our study catchments were felled, and that drain blocking and silt traps, put in place as part of restoration management, were likely effective in mitigating negative effects. Looking ahead, we suggest that future research should investigate longer term water quality effects and compare different ways of potentially controlling nutrient release.

响应于泥炭地恢复目标和政策激励，通过排水沟堵塞和树木清除来恢复排水的绿化泥炭地的工作正在增加。在短期内，这些密集的恢复作业可能会影响接收水道和依赖它们的生物群。这项研究通过在恢复前和恢复后15个月的时间内，对苏格兰北部Flow Country泥炭地的溪流和河流水质进行了评估，评估了“森林到沼泽”恢复的即时效果。我们发现，在恢复后，流失到恢复区的水流化学性质与对照流不同，与恢复前相比，恢复流中的磷酸盐浓度显着更高（1.7-6.2倍，平均4.4）。与未受影响的河流基准站点相比，这导致了在恢复后的这段时期内，河流中目标“良好”质量阈值（基于欧盟水框架指令准则）的通过率（从100％降低到75％） （恢复后从100％降至90％）。虽然总体浊度增加，但溶解后的有机碳，铁，钾和锰的溶解度并不显着，但它们表现出夸张的季节性周期，在夏季的恢复流中达到峰值。我们将这些相对有限的较小的短期影响归因于以下事实：在我们的研究中，流域面积中相对较小的百分比（3％至23％）被砍伐，并且排水沟和淤泥诱集装置作为污水处理厂的一部分而到位恢复管理可能有效地减轻了负面影响。