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Description
Mires remain the most significant terrestrial carbon stock of the world. The most up to date research results have informed that former estimates of the amounts of carbon stored in mires can be underestimated by even as high as 100%. Dominant direct drivers of mire status originate from hydrology, namely the type (i.e., rain- or groundwater feeding) and quantities of water supplied to a mire and removed from this system in result of natural drainage and evapotranspiration. Impaired peat accumulation processes can result in a positive feedback of the emission of CO2 as a response to supply of mineral-rich groundwater (resulting from permafrost thaw and increase of the fen catchment area in Arctic palsa mires) and water balance changes (resulting from shortages of water in temperate fens and sloping fens). FORCE project results are likely to influence the global perspective of the need for conservation of natural mires and considering abrupt climatic change as a challenge for mire-related and water-related elements of carbon cycle. It is likely that the messages resulting from the FORCE project implementation will influence international strategies oriented at promotion of mire research and conservation, placing new threads of emissions and carbon accumulation in a management context.