Sunday

sphagnum fuscum is an emergent field

2 yrs ago British researcher C.Freeman confirmed Sphagnum fuscum contains a plant enzyme that inhibits decay (and subsequent CO2 release) of "dead" plant matter, if moisture is maintained:

The top "living" layer of peat moss grows seamlessly on the "dead" peat.  The top layer is called Acrotelm; is 10cm deep.  It accumulates at around 1cm/yr and is subsequently compressed as it accumulates in the lower catotelm/peat layer at a rate of 1mm/yr.  15m deep peat is the S.fuscum limit.  Other types of peat likely emit methane; other plant species should be researched here only as a succession target or as S.fuscum symbiotes and temporary pioneer species.

Acrotelm has been reintroduced upon dry harvested peatland with moderate success.  There were noticable gaps caused by hysterisis.  If this is the only issue, rolling reclaimed peatland might help at a cost.
No one has yet tried to introduce acrotelm from an intact S.fuscum peatland, and introduced it where no S.fuscum peatland exists.  1/3 of the existing Acrotelm can be safely harvested with regrowth in a few years in peat lands where rainfall is 1200mm/yr.  Possible moisture holding substrates for reintroducing Acrotelm (chunks of 4000cm^3 will survive/grow better than 2000cm^3) upon include stand-alone or a combination of:
  1. Peat deposited by faster growing and decaying plant species.
  2. Loess or silt.  Silt covering Acrotelm is not desired.
  3. Clay or clayey soil.
  4. Thin slivers of S.fuscum peat at potentially different stages of "decay", separated from a metres deep peat "deposit".
The are other potential afforestation substrates than bulk Acrotelm chunks/layers from existing S.fuscum peat bogs.  S.fuscum reproduces primarily vegetatively, but also sexually.  Clippings can be cut, but these are harder to ensure survival and growth due to winter dessication.  Sporophytes might be somehow collected wild, in a Greenhouse, or GMOed to be released plentifully.  They would be lightweight enough for cheap airborne release, bypassing boggy terrain.  In Canada around 7000 yrs ago around 65 degrees North, a paper believes peat was deposited at a rate of 65 grams of carbon/m^2/yr.  If this rate of growth can be recreated in the wild or in greenhouses, or maybe in a future safe bioreactor or something, these "peat farms" could be transplanted elsewhere.