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Herbicides, such as MCPA and clopyralid, may be transported to surface waters via runoff, which can have unintended environmental consequences. A split herbicide application strategy, wherein applications are spread across a season, may improve herbicide effectiveness, although impacts of this strategy on runoff mitigation have not been investigated. Therefore, this study aimed to (1) quantify the impact of split‐dose applications of MCPA and clopyralid on herbicide losses in surface runoff and (2) assess the impact of split‐dose applications of MCPA on the quantity and classification of MCPA‐degrading soil bacteria. Intact grassed soil sods were placed in 1 m‐long × 0.25 m‐wide × 0.1 m‐deep laboratory flumes, onto which either MCPA or clopyralid were applied in one full‐dose (13.5 kg MCPA ha−1; 2 kg clopyralid ha−1) or two split‐doses (each 6.75 kg MCPA ha−1; 1 kg clopyralid ha−1) 42 days apart. On days 2, 7 and 21 following herbicide applications, flumes were subjected to controlled rainfall simulations at an intensity of 11 mm h−1, and the herbicides in the runoff were quantified. MCPA and clopyralid concentrations in the runoff were highest immediately after the initial application. Both herbicides were below the limit of detection (0.1 μg l−1 for MCPA and 0.45 μg l−1 for clopyralid) by 44 days. No herbicides were detected in the runoff following the second split‐dose application. For MCPA, this was attributed to an adaptation in the microbial community with the emergence of bacteria possessing the tfdA class III gene in the soil. These results support split‐dose herbicide application as a strategy for agricultural management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peatland restoration and rehabilitation action has become more widely acknowledged as a necessary response to mitigating climate change risks and improving global carbon storage. Peatland ecosystems require restoration time spans of the order of decades and, thus, cannot be dependent upon the shorter-term monitoring often carried out in research projects. Hydrological assessments using geospatial tools provide the basis for planning restoration works as well as analysing associated environmental influences. "Restoration" encompasses applications to pre-restoration and post-restoration scenarios for both bogs and fens, across a range of environmental impact fields. The aim of this scoping review is to identify, describe, and categorize current process-based modelling uses in peatlands in order to investigate the applicability and appropriateness of ecohydrological and/or hydrological models for northern peatland restoration. Two literature searches were conducted using the entire Web of Science database in September 2022 and August 2023. Of the final 211 papers included in the review, models and their applications were categorized according to this review's research interests in seven distinct categories aggregating the papers' research themes and model outputs. Restoration site context was added by identifying 229 unique study site locations from the full database, which were catalogued and analysed against raster data for the Köppen–Geiger climate classification scheme. A majority of northern peatland sites were in temperate oceanic zones or humid continental zones that experienced snow. Over one in five models from the full database of papers were unnamed and likely intended for single use. Key themes emerging from topics covered by papers in the database included the following: modelling restoration development from a bog growth perspective, the prioritization of modelling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions dynamics as a part of policymaking, the importance of spatial connectivity within or alongside process-based models to represent heterogeneous systems, and the increased prevalence of remote sensing and machine learning techniques to predict restoration progress with little physical site intervention. Models are presented according to their application to peatlands or broader ecosystem and organized from most to least complex. This review provides valuable context for the application of ecohydrological models in determining strategies for peatland restoration and evaluating post-intervention development over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During laboratory assessment of the soil water characteristic curve (SWCC), determining equilibrium at various pressures is challenging. This study establishes a methodological framework to identify appropriate experimental duration at each pressure step for the construction of SWCCs via centrifugation. Three common temporal approaches to equilibrium – 24-, 48- and 72-h – are examined, for a grassland and arable soil. The framework highlights the differences in equilibrium duration between the two soils. For both soils, the 24-h treatment significantly overestimated saturation. For the arable site, no significant difference was observed between the 48- and 72-h treatments. Hence, a 48-h treatment was sufficient to determine ‘effective equilibrium’. For the grassland site, the 48- and 72-h treatments differed significantly. This highlights that a more prolonged duration is necessary for some soils to conclusively determine that effective equilibrium has been reached. This framework can be applied to other soils to determine the optimum centrifuge durations for SWCC construction.

Peatland restoration and rehabilitation action has become more widely acknowledged as a necessary response to mitigating climate change risks and improving global carbon storage. Peatland ecosystems require restoration timespans on the order of decades and thus cannot be dependent upon the shorter-term monitoring often carried out in research projects. Hydrological assessments using geospatial tools provide the basis for planning restoration works as well as analysing associated environmental influences. "Restoration" encompasses applications to pre- and post-restoration scenarios for both bogs and fens, across a range of environmental impact fields. The aim of this scoping review is to identify, describe, and categorise current process-based modelling uses in peatlands in order to investigate the applicability and appropriateness of eco- and/or hydrological models for northern peatland restoration. Two literature searches were conducted using the Web of Science entire database in September 2022 and August 2023. Of the final 211 papers included in the review, models and their applications were categorised according to this review's research interests in 7 distinct categories aggregating the papers' research themes and model outputs. Restoration site context was added by identifying 234 unique study site locations from the full database which were catalogued and analysed against raster data for the Köppen -Geiger climate classification scheme. A majority of northern peatland sites were in temperate oceanic zones or humid continental zones experiencing snow. Over one in five models from the full database of papers was unnamed and likely single-use. The top three most-used of these models, based on the frequency of their use on distinct site locations, were LPJ, ecosys, and DigiBog, in that order. Key themes emerging from topics covered by papers in the database included: modelling restoration development from a bog growth perspective; the prioritisation of modelling GHG emissions dynamics as a part of policymaking; the importance of spatial connectivity within or alongside process-based models to represent heterogeneous systems; and the emerging prevalence of remote sensing and machine learning techniques to predict restoration progress with little physical site intervention. This review provides valuable context for the application of ecohydrological models in determining strategies for peatland restoration and evaluating post-intervention development over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]