Moor research in southern Patagonia at the end of the world
12 April 2024, by Sophie Sefrin
Photo: Sophie Sefrin
For her final thesis, Master's student Sophie Sefrin from the M. Sc. Geosciences course traveled to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost province of Argentina, whose capital Ushuaia describes itself as "the end of the world", for seven weeks in February and March 2024. In cooperation with scientists from the Centro Austral de Investigaciones Científicas (CADIC-CONICET), she investigated the influence of drainage, peat extraction and rewetting on methane flow dynamics in a southern Patagonian raised bog.
Between and in front of the foothills of the Andes, extensive moor landscapes formed after the glacial melt of the last glaciation, which are largely untouched, but are increasingly being used for peat extraction. Human intervention has a major impact on the water balance and on nutrient and carbon dynamics. This needs to be quantified in order to illustrate the relevance of peatlands as carbon sinks. To this end, canopy measurements were carried out at various locations within the investigated peatland on differently used surfaces to record the gas flows, which are now being evaluated back in Hamburg as part of Sophie Sefrin's master's thesis.