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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Biogeoscience
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1554757
Phenolic supplements: testing an approach to limit Sphagnum decomposition in a Sphagnum farming system
Provisionally accepted- 1Laval University, Quebec, Canada
- 2Bangor Wetlands Group, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom
- 3Yonsei University, Seoul, Seoul, Republic of Korea
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Phenolic compounds have been proposed to influence decomposition by inhibiting extracellular enzyme activities, as described in the enzymic latch mechanism (ELM). This study examined the effects of phenolic treatments on Sphagnum decomposition, productivity, and biomass accumulation within a Sphagnum farming system. A split-plot experiment with three phenolic treatments was implemented in two cultivation basins established with mosses dominated by the Acutifolia or Sphagnum subgenus. Phenolic treatments included wood pellets (wood), old roots from peat harrowing (root), and no addition (control). Phenolic additions did not result in a measurable reduction in decomposition rates, nor was Sphagnum productivity or biomass affected by the experimental treatments. Both subgenera were approximately similar small sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) such as -2 ± 1 g CO2 m -2 d -1 (Acutifolia) and -0.2 ± 0.8 g CO2 m -2 d -1 (Sphagnum). Phenolic additions at both subgenera resulted in higher CO2 values as net ecosystem exchange compared to control, which could be linked to emissions resulting from wood and root decomposition. At both subgenera, phenolic additions neither increased peat phenolic concentration nor inhibited enzyme activities compared to control. The current study did not validate the potential of phenolics in limiting decomposition as theorized in ELM. The short duration of the experiment may have restricted the effect of phenolic products applied at the surface from reaching the ~10 cm depth where peat was sampled. This could explain the absence of the inhibitory effect of phenolic products on enzyme activities. Therefore, it is recommended to do various sample analyses from different depths to better understand phenolics-enzyme interactions in a Sphagnum farming system.
Keywords: Paludiculture, Sphagnum farming, phenolic additions, phenol oxidase, hydrolase, Carbon dioxide exchange
Received: 02 Jan 2025; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Asif, Rochefort, Freeman, Dunn, Kang and Guêné-Nanchen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Talal Asif, Laval University, Quebec, Canada
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