Impacts of different intensities of commercial Sphagnum moss extraction on CO2 fluxes in a northern Patagonia peatland

Peatlands are key ecosystems for global climate regulation because they provide the most efficient carbon sink on the planet. Despite this, they have been widely degraded by various anthropogenic disturbances, causing imbalances in their ecological functioning. A more recent type of disturbance corresponds to the commercial extraction of Sphagnum mosses, which has been carried out in temperate peatlands distributed in Australasia and Patagonia. In the extreme north of Chilean Patagonia, many peatlands have been subject to intensive commercial extraction of the moss Sphagnum magellanicum, causing their degradation and impacts on CO2 fluxes, a situation that has been barely studied. We conducted a field study on CO2 exchange at three sites, two of them representing different intensities of commercial extraction of the moss S. magellanicum and an undisturbed site in an anthropogenic peatland located in the northern Patagonian region of Chile. CO2 fluxes were measured in situ using a transparent and opaque closed chamber. Gross primary productivity (GPP), ecosystem respiration (Reco), and net ecosystem exchange (NEE) were modeled at high temporal resolution by determining daily and cumulative CO2 flux rates during the vegetation growing season. The NEE records showed significant differences between the three sites studied, attributed to differences in the GPP. Sites with high (