Quantifying Hydrological and Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) Dynamics in an Eastern Quebec Peatland Managed with the ACrotelm Harvesting Method (ACM)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Horticultural peat extraction in Canada requires removal of vegetation and partial drainage of the peatland, resulting in altered ecohydrological conditions, changes to dissolved organic carbon (DOC) chemistry and the peatland becoming a net carbon emitter. This study explores the impacts of a new “ACrotelm Harvesting Method” (ACM) on the hydrological and DOC dynamics on an ombrotrophic bog near Pointe-Lebel, Quebec (49º8’N, 68º13’W). The ACM represents a less invasive method in contrast to vacuum-harvesting, and harvests 10 cm of acrotelm peat by lifting and replacing surface vegetation. This study utilized paired well and piezometer nests (35, 60 and 85 cm depth) to measure water table depth, specific yield, saturated hydraulic conductivity, DOC concentration and quality across four peatland sections each harvested in a different year (2021 to 2024) using ACM, and compared these results to two unharvested control sections within the study area. Measurements were obtained pre- and post-harvest from the section harvested in 2024, which was used as a case study. Post-harvest measurements indicated that the surface was 15 cm closer to the water table, as a function of harvesting acrotelm peat and compression caused by the ACM machinery, resulting in a vertical shift of the ground surface into deeper peat. The lower specific yield and transposition of saturated hydraulic conductivity values observed at deeper depths pre-harvest to shallower depths post-harvest provided further evidence for this vertical shift. This shift resulted in leaching of organic matter below the harvested layer, which increases microbial activity (as indicated in by DOC quality metrics) and the DOC concentration, with the largest increase observed in the top 60 cm of the peat profile. A chrono-sequence of the harvested sections indicated a continuous increase of DOC concentration following the initial increase post-harvest, and a shift towards a higher degree of humification with time since harvest. The magnitude of changes in the peat hydrophysical properties and DOC dynamics observed at the ACM-harvested sections are lower than those observed in vacuum-harvested sites, suggesting a smaller impact of ACM. Further, effects of ACM on hydrophysical properties and DOC dynamics are relatively short-lived.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".