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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-5248</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Early carbon recovery after cell-bunding rewetting is constrained by aerated microsites in a cutaway raised bog</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Shamsuzzaman</surname>
<given-names>Md</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Regan</surname>
<given-names>Shane</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>McCarthy</surname>
<given-names>Ultan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Casey</surname>
<given-names>Imelda</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Farrell</surname>
<given-names>Ciara</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ahmad</surname>
<given-names>Sate</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1268-3457</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Habib</surname>
<given-names>Wahaj</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7236-2148</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Naughton</surname>
<given-names>Owen</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of the Built Environment, South East Technological University, Carlow, Ireland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Scientific Advice and Research Directorate, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Dublin, Ireland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Land Sciences, South East Technological University, Waterford, Ireland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Restoration and Landscape Ecology Lab, School of Biology and Environmental Science, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Department of Geography, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>29</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>25</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Md Shamsuzzaman et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5248/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5248/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5248/egusphere-2026-5248.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-5248/egusphere-2026-5248.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Rewetting is increasingly used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from cutaway peatlands and support the recovery of carbon sequestration. While carbon responses of drained peatlands to rewetting are relatively well understood, few studies link ecosystem-scale carbon exchange with fluxes at restoration-created microsites during early recovery. This is particularly true for cell-bunding restoration, where whole-site fluxes are rarely linked to the microsites created by the restoration design. Here, we examined carbon dynamics at an Irish cutaway raised bog during the two years after cell-bunding rewetting. We combined ecosystem-scale eddy covariance measurements of CO₂ and CH₄ with CO₂ chamber measurements across bunds, vegetated peat, bare peat, and open water. The site remained a net CO₂-C source in both years, although net CO₂ losses declined by 39 % from 2024 to 2025. CH₄ emissions were approximately two orders of magnitude smaller than CO₂ emissions in carbon-mass terms. CO₂ exchange was strongly associated with meteorological and hydrological conditions, with lower net losses occurring during the cooler, wetter conditions of 2025. Chamber measurements revealed strong spatial heterogeneity. Bunds were persistent CO₂ hotspots. Flooded open water areas had very low emissions, whereas CO₂ efflux increased when these surfaces became temporarily exposed following water-table drawdown. Vegetated peat showed high respiration along with substantial growing-season CO₂ uptake. Overall, early post-rewetting CO₂-C dynamics at the site remained strongly influenced by aerated microsites. Restoration success should therefore be assessed using both ecosystem-scale fluxes and microsite-level measurements to capture spatial heterogeneity in carbon responses.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="25"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Irish Research Council</funding-source>
<award-id>GOIPG/2024/4885</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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