Student Research Reports

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We investigated peatlands in the coastal area of the Gulf of Riga in Western Estonia. We were interested in what species can grow in the peatland, and if and how water level affects the plants. We studied 6 different research sites across the Varemurru area. We found from the Estonian Land Board Geoportal search that the soils are very diverse in this area. We chose six different and evenly spread sites, two were wet fens, two were moist swamp forests and two were dry peaty forests. We decided to focus on finding out whether the water level affects the plants growing in the soil. Because at some point in history these places were all peatlands, these soils should have a peat layer. Three hypotheses out of five were supported. Most interesting thing we found through research was that the peat quantity was not related to water level. One potential mismatch reason is that maybe this is due to the recent extreme drought that was a big problem all over Estonia in the summer of 2021. Other things were a bit more predictable, but overall the research was very instructive