Climate change and biodiversity losses have necessitated innovative approaches to peatland management. This study examines pivotal historical landmarks and the recent forces of change that have affected peatlands in Finland, Ireland and Scotland, highlighting how national contexts, such as land ownership, forestry, agriculture and the need for domestic energy sources, have shaped the peatland use in those countries. We further introduce national and EU policies, which include, for example, national peatland strategies, and identify barriers to sustainable management of these important ecosystems. We propose six key solutions that could improve peatland persistence more broadly in northern Europe: (1) adoption of an integrated, landscape-scale strategy for rewetting and restoration with multi-stakeholder collaboration, (2) enhancement of monitoring to improve outcomes and refine best practices, (3) alignment of both national and EU policies across relevant sectors (energy, climate change, biodiversity, land use) to promote sustainable peatland management, (4) minimisation of trade-offs between green energy transition and sustainable peatland management, (5) engagement with local communities in restoration efforts for better acceptability and outcomes, and (6) wider leverage of market-based mechanisms, such as carbon, biodiversity and water credits, to finance peatland restoration. Together, these measures provide a pathway for the sustainable management of northern peatlands by balancing environmental integrity with socio-economic needs.

Rewetting drained peatlands can lead to high nutrient mobilization, increased methane emissions, and a slow re-establishment of peat-forming vegetation. To guide effective restoration and management, understanding the temporal and spatial variability in porewater chemistry is essential. This study surveyed 64 natural and rewetted peatlands across Germany, Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Georgia, and Scotland from 1997 to 2017. A total of 812 anoxic porewater samples were collected using dialysis samplers (0-0.6 m depth). The rewetted fens exhibited a wide range of dissolved substances, spanning orders of magnitude for soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP: 0.1-18.9 mg L-1), ammonium (NH4+-N: 0.1-117.3 mg L-1), and dissolved organic carbon (DOC: 13-313 mg L-1). However, the mean concentrations were significantly higher than those observed in natural fens (p < 0.05). Depth-integrated mobilization rates for nutrients in rewetted fens were, on average, 23 times higher for SRP (1.8 mg P m(-2) d(-1)) and 4.6 times higher for NH4+-N (3.6 mg N m(-2) d(-1)) compared to their natural counterparts (0.1 mg P m(-2) d(-1) and 0.8 mg N m(-2) d(-1)). Seasonal variation was also evident in rewetted fens densely colonized by helophytes, with SRP concentrations being lower in the growing season. Notably, SRP concentrations remained elevated 10-20 years after rewetting; however, a 50-80 % decrease was observed at sites characterized by comparatively low iron content in the peat (< 20 mg g(-1) dry mass). Further investigations should explore how nutrient dynamics evolve over extended rewetting periods in different contexts, including climate change.

High-latitude boreal peatlands store up to a third of all the terrestrial carbon as peat, partially as decomposed organic matter. And, they act as reservoirs of vast amounts of GHG (Greenhouse gases) such as methane. The balance between being a source, or a sink of GHGs depends on continuation of favourable conditions under which peat is accumulated, or at least maintained through a series of complex feedback mechanisms linking mechanics, ecology and hydrology. Several peatland ecosystems have been disturbed in the past due to land-use change, build-up of roads and other infrastructure, and changing water flow in and out of peatlands. While these disturbances have significantly changed characteristics of many peatlands, they have affected a relatively small area of global peatlands. However, projected climate changes in the future threaten the balance of all global peatland ecosystems. Total rainfall and mean temperature are known to play a significant role in sustaining and expanding blanket bogs – a globally rare type of peatland confined to high latitude regions with year-round cool climate. However, the number of rain days, and length and severity of drought conditions are also important for peatland health. Here, we present projected land use changes and GHG emissions under various RCP climate scenarios along with seasonal weather changes on blanket bogs in Caithness and Sutherland regions of Scotland. Our results show that high precipitation-low temperature climatic regimes necessary for maintaining and restoring peatlands may be changing with the highest contribution from changing rainfall patterns. We highlight how this could impact resilience mechanisms across a range of scales.

Peatlands accumulate soil carbon (C) over millennia and are a globally important long-term terrestrial C store. This C store is at risk of destabilisation by climate and human disturbance. Many peatlands have pools or ponds at the surface which often contain very high C concentrations in organic (dissolved and particulate organic C) and gaseous (CO2 and CH4) forms. The radiocarbon composition (14C) of this C can tell is where these high C concentrations are primarily generated; i.e., from contemporary primary production or C released from deeper, old peat layers due to destabilisation. We present novel 14C and stable C (δ13C) isotope data from six peatland pool locations in the United Kingdom. Our data are from two distinct pool types: natural peatland pools and those formed by ditch blocking efforts to rewet peatlands (restoration pools). We focus on dissolved and particulate organic C and dissolved CO2, with additional sediment, CH4 and ebullition (bubble) observations (total n = 97). The majority of pools contained mainly contemporary C, with the most C (~50-75%) in all forms being younger than 300 years old. Both natural and restoration pools were found to transform and decompose organic C in the water column and emit CO2 to the atmosphere. Mixing with ambient atmosphere and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions were more evident in the generally larger natural pools. Little evidence of deep, old C was found either in natural or restoration pools, even though there is substantial old C in the surrounding peat matrix. We did observe some potential evidence for old C emission via CH4 ebullition, however. Our results suggest that some millennial-aged C can be emitted by peatland pools. But the overwhelming age of C in our sampled pools was contemporary. Our results suggest that restoration pools formed by management interventions such as ditch blocking can be effective at preventing the release of old C via the aquatic pathway.

There is a global shortage of long-term, controlled experiments assessing the effectiveness of land-use interventions, especially in peatland ecosystems. These habitats play a crucial role in biodiversity conservation and climate regulation, yet forest-to-bog restoration remains poorly understood and under-evaluated at scale. We aimed to test the effectiveness of different restoration techniques in converting non-native conifer plantations back to functioning bog ecosystems, using a rigorous, replicated, long-term experimental framework to generate robust evidence to support peatland conservation and climate policy. At a 21,500 ha nature reserve in the Flow Country UNESCO World Heritage Site (northern Scotland), we established two large-scale replicated experiments (2-8 ha blocks) using a Before-After-Control-Impact (BACI) design. Treatments compared 'standard' and 'enhanced' approaches to hydrological restoration and tree removal, alongside intact bog and forestry controls. Hydrological and vegetation responses were monitored over a 6-7-year period following intervention. Enhanced restoration techniques led to more rapid recovery of bog-like conditions, including raised and stabilised water tables and the re-establishment of characteristic vegetation assemblages. These outperformed standard restoration methods and demonstrated significant ecological gains within a relatively short timeframe for forest-to-bog conversion. Despite the long timescales typically required for peatland restoration, our results show that enhanced methods can significantly accelerate early recovery. These findings demonstrate the importance of experimental rigour in restoration science and provide critical insights into effective peatland management. Synthesis and applications. Our study highlights the value of large-scale, replicated experiments with robust BACI designs in evaluating restoration success. Enhanced restoration methods show clear ecological benefits and should be prioritised in policy and practice to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of peatland restoration for biodiversity and climate objectives.

Peatlands are water-logged ecosystems that limit microbial decomposition making them effective carbon sinks. However, drainage or erosion removes these constraints on decomposition, switching them to carbon sources. Restoration aims to reverse these trends. Microbial ecophysiology influences carbon fluxes but how it responds to peatland degradation and restoration is poorly understood. Here we used metagenomics to study microbial functions and quantified growth rates using isotope labelling across seven sites in Britain, each with restored, degraded, and near-natural peatlands. We found that growth rates in restored treatments were comparable to the near-natural, but were significantly higher in degraded. This growth rate reduction in restored peatlands was dependent on the scale of degradation and the length of restoration, and was underpinned by a shift towards energetically less favourable metabolic pathways such as anaerobic respiration, fermentation, and carbon fixation. A peatland ecosystem health index estimated based on measurements of peat moisture, oxygen, pH, organic matter chemistry, and moss cover, explained a significant amount of variation in microbial ecophysiology across the gradient. We demonstrate that microbial ecophysiology changes with peatland ecosystem health in a predictable manner. This knowledge can inform restoration targets and monitoring of recovery to maximise the return of carbon accrual functions of peatlands. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Scottish Universities Partnership for Environmental Research (SUPER) Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP), NERC Environmental Omics Facility (NEOF) International Human Frontier Science Program Organization, https://ror.org/02ebx7v45, RGP018/2024 FWF Austrian Science Fund, 10.55776/COE7

Peatland restoration aims to restore hydrology and peat-forming vegetation, supporting other ecosystem functions. However, the time required for complete vegetation recovery is generally unknown. Here, we investigate this in an experimentally restored, formerly afforested blanket bog in northern Scotland, which was plowed, fertilized, and planted with non-native conifers in the mid-1980s. Plowing created three "microforms": Ridges, Original surface, and Furrows. Restoration management took place in two stages: trees were felled and drains blocked in 1998 (Standard treatment); then parts of the area were further rewetted with additional drain-blocking in 2015/2016 (Enhanced treatment). We recorded plant species composition in permanent quadrats 0, 5, 13, and 24 years after the start of restoration. Here we use an ordination-regression-based approach (ORBA) to predict time to plant species compositional recovery compared with a reference (comparable nearby intact blanket bog). For the first 13 years, plant species composition diverged from the reference, then later started to converge. If the current speed and direction of vegetation change were maintained, predicted time to recovery varies between 50-100 years and 120-285 years applying a relaxed or strict criterion for restoration success, respectively. Seven growing seasons after Enhanced treatment, recovery speed increased only for the driest microform, Ridge. Surprisingly, this microform was not predicted to take longer to recover than other microforms under either treatment. On the landscape scale, sloping areas were harder to restore than flatter areas, having longer predicted times to recovery. Complete vegetation restoration may take a long time because of legacies from the afforestation (e.g., increased nutrient availability) and the time taken to fully restore surface morphology and water table. On the other hand, other research has already demonstrated that the site is currently acting as a net carbon sink, despite the incomplete vegetation recovery. We argue that functions may be restored without full recovery of species composition. However, approaching the full suite of species may be desirable to support long-term resilience. Successful peatland restoration needs a strong science-practice partnership, where learning gained from monitoring both damaged and comparable intact peatlands can be used to adapt management interventions.

Peatlands play a crucial role in global carbon storage, yet their resilience to climate change remains uncertain. This study presents a novel method for generating long-term (>1000 years) site-specific climate data to drive peatland ecohydrological models. Using meteorological observations, we employ the Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG) to produce stochastic climate series for precipitation and temperature. The method integrates Holocene climate reconstructions from the EPOCH-2 database to simulate paleoclimate trends and interpolates climate projections based on Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) from CMIP6 models. Finally, a time series of potential evapotranspiration is calculated using a modified version of the Thornthwaite equation. This approach ensures continuity in climate inputs for peatland modelling, aiding in the assessment of long-term climate impacts on carbon dynamics. Our method provides a replicable framework for other regions, supporting improved climate-driven peatland simulations. • Long-term paleoclimate data with climate projections tailored to specific sites are scarcely available • This research outlines a simple method for generating climate series for driving ecosystem models • Uses open-source resources and databases that are applicable across Europe

Peatlands are globally important carbon-rich ecosystems but are increasingly vulnerable to fire risk due to climate change and human activity. Predictive modeling of peatland fire risk is essential for effective management and mitigation, particularly in regions like Scotland, where extensive peatlands face unique climatic and ecological pressures. This study aims to develop a weather-driven predictive framework for peatland fire risk, focusing on the weather data (e.g., temperature, precipitation, relative humidity) with drought and climate indices (e.g., SPEI, NAO) to enhance prediction accuracy for Scotland’s peatlands. Statistical models including machine learning (ML) techniques are utilized to capture seasonality, spatial variability and fine-scale hydrological dynamics in the fire risk. The study also evaluates the predictive skill of linear Log-Reg and ML-based models, proposing the best model to use to predict peatland fire risk probability. We highlight the gaps in peatland-specific fire modeling, and suggest future research priorities to effectively address and to improve fire risk predictions and inform peatland management strategies in Scotland and similar ecosystems.

Understanding how wildfires impact the biogeochemistry of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in peatland catchments is important for predicting how they may respond to climate change. However, the net effects of wildfires on the composition of DOM are not yet well understood. We investigated how fire changes the age, thermal stability, and molecular composition of stream DOM in blanket peatlands in the Flow Country and the Isle of Lewis, North of Scotland. Radiocarbon measurements showed that stream DOC was predominantly modern in both bulk and ramped thermal fractions with no apparent change observed due to wildfires. Ramped thermal oxidation revealed higher thermal stability of stream DOM in wildfire impacted areas, as demonstrated by higher activation energies, a proxy for organic C bond strength. This was prominent between 350 and 470 degrees C and was also associated with an increase in the content of thermally stable C and a reduction in bond diversity. Using ultra high-resolution mass spectrometry, we found an increase in the molecular diversity of DOM and in the relative abundance of highly unsaturated and phenolic class. There was also a higher relative abundance of highly oxygenated N- and S-containing formula, potentially from partially combusted plant and soil material, which could explain the shift in activation energy. Together, our results demonstrate ways that wildfires can impact the reactivity and composition of DOM, with implications for its stability and residence time along the terrestrial-aquatic continuum.

Hydrological changes in peatland are directly related to peat condition. Restoration projects typically aim to raise the water table to enhance peat development, support ecology and increase carbon storage. Remote monitoring of peatland hydrology is challenging but advantageous for assessing condition and restoration effectiveness. This study explores how temporal Sentinel-1-derived InSAR coherence relates to ground-based measurements of soil moisture, water level and local precipitation at two sites, near-natural (Munsary) and degraded (Knockfin Heights), in the Flow Country, Scotland, alongside regional Wick weather station precipitation data (2015–2024). Stronger seasonal linear relationships were observed between soil moisture and InSAR coherence in spring/summer (R2 reaching 0.83 at Munsary subsite C, p < 0.001), with in-phase cross correlation throughout the year. In contrast, the relationship between water level and InSAR coherence was more complex with an out-of-phase relationship for much of the year and a weaker linear correlation. These relationships varied with peatland condition, strongest at the more intact bog (Munsary). InSAR coherence and precipitation were in-phase, but not linearly correlated, and land use/cover had no significant effect. Outcomes suggest that InSAR coherence could, when combined with other data, assist in mapping soil moisture/water level dynamics in blanket peatlands, and identify the timing of precipitation events in areas with non-frontal rainfall.

Climate change is resulting in more extreme fire weather during major heatwaves. Across temperate Europe, shrub landscapes dominate the area burned, with the moisture content of fuels during these events determining the threat posed. Current controls on the moisture content of temperate fuel constituents and their response to future extreme heatwaves are not known. We took field measurements of live and dead heather (Calluna vulgaris) and organic soil moisture content across the UK over 3 years, including an intensive sampling campaign during the July 2022 heatwave. Here, we show that the fuel moisture content of live fuel is associated significantly with phenological variables, dead fuel only with weather variables, whilst organic-rich ground fuels are more associated with landscape variables. However, during the record 2022 heatwave there was a harmonisation in fuel moisture controls across different fuel constituents, with those controls being driven by weather alone. This caused synchronised extreme dryness outside of current seasonal norms across all fuel constituents at the same time and place. Future intense summer heatwaves can therefore be expected to align the most severe conditions for fire ignition, spread and impact in traditionally non-fire prone regions, producing humid temperate landscapes susceptible to extreme wildfire events.

Background In 2019, a wildfire impacted an area of blanket bog and wet heath > 60 km 2 in the Flow Country peatlands of northern Scotland, a site of global significance. Unusually the footprint of the wildfire included discrete areas of degraded, restored, and near-natural blanket bogs. Following the wildfire, we surveyed vegetation in 387 quadrats in burnt and unburnt areas. The study aimed to determine whether and how proximity to human-made drains and microtopography affected fire-vegetation interactions and included older wildfire sites and unburnt control sites for context. Results Overall, our study suggests that the 2019 Flow Country wildfire caused mostly superficial burning; except in the most degraded area, which burned more severely and where we recorded more profound impacts on the vegetation. We found higher cover of litter, which in turn led to increased localized fire damage in quadrats close to drains compared with quadrats away from the influence of drains. We also found greater fire impacts (e.g., proportions of moss burnt and Sphagnum discoloration) on hummocks, particularly where they were higher relative to the hollows. Overall, vegetation both near and away from drains largely resembled nearby unburnt sites within 20 years. Conclusions Overall, our study suggests that the 2019 Flow Country wildfire caused mostly superficial burning, except in the most degraded areas. Vegetation communities of blanket bogs associated with conservation and restoration areas in the region appear to be largely resilient to occasional, low severity wildfires. This implies that management interventions that maintain wet conditions in peatlands have the potential to help reduce the risks of severe wildfires.

Peatlands account for 10% of UK land area, 80% of which are degraded to some degree, emitting carbon at a similar magnitude to oil refineries or landfill sites. A lack of tools for rapid and reliable assessment of peatland condition has limited monitoring of vast areas of peatland and prevented targeting areas urgently needing action to halt further degradation. Measured using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), peatland surface motion is highly indicative of peatland condition, largely driven by the eco-hydrological change in the peatland causing swelling and shrinking of the peat substrate. The computational intensity of recent methods using InSAR time series to capture the annual functional structure of peatland surface motion becomes increasingly challenging as the sample size increases. Instead, we utilize the behavior of the entire peatland surface motion time series using object oriented data analysis to assess peatland condition. In a Gibbs sampling scheme, our cluster analysis based on the functional behavior of the surface motion time series finds features representative of soft/wet peatlands, drier/shrubby peatlands and thin/modified peatlands align with the clusters. The posterior distribution of the assigned peatland types enables the scale of peatland degradation to be assessed, which will guide future cost-effective decisions for peatland restoration.

The Flow Country blanket bogs in the counties of Caithness and Sutherland (northern Scotland, UK) harbour internationally important populations of specialist open-bog breeding bird species. However, commercial afforestation carried out in the 1980s, involving the non-native tree species lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) covering over 67,000 hectares (ca. 17 %) of the peatland, has significantly affected bird assemblages within and around the plantations. We conducted a literature review to identify the avian winners and losers resulting from this transformation. Our synthesis of existing findings confirms that afforestation has led to changes in the availability of breeding and foraging habitat, alterations in inter- and intra-specific competition dynamics, and the creation of forest edge effects. Crucially, the open-bog bird assemblages have been largely replaced by woodland specialists and generalists. While 33 species (including five Red-listed Birds of Conservation Concern) are observed to benefit from afforestation, these gains are arguably of lower conservation value than the original open-bog assemblages (27 species including 11 Red-listed species). As a mean proportion of the British population range, the Flow Country has a significantly higher proportion of Amber and Green-listed loser species than winners. Understanding the changes in assemblages is crucial for informing future decisions regarding forest planting and re-planting, particularly in the context of the ongoing dual challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. Further research is necessary to comprehend the effects of afforestation on populations of waterfowl associated with open water features present in the blanket bog landscape. Given the need for woodland creation, bird conservation would benefit from leaving naturally open habitats intact and siting new woodland in areas that were formerly naturally forested.

Fuel moisture content (FMC) is important for the ignitability, behaviour and severity of wildfires. Understanding the drivers of FMC and its spatial and temporal variability can help us develop fuel moisture models and inform assessments of wildfire behaviour and danger. Here we present the first United Kingdom (UK) national-scale temperate FMC dataset of 8,057 samples of eighteen different fuel constituents collected across 58 sampling sites between 2021-2023. We sampled fuels across emerging fire-prone ecosystems in the UK across three studies: (1) UK-wide longer-term sampling characterising the spatio-temporal drivers of FMC; (2) landscape-scale measurement through the North Yorkshire Moors to investigate landscape-driven variability in FMC; (3) plot-scale intensive sampling in the West Midlands to quantify diurnal patterns and among-sampler variability in fuel measurements. This database addresses a global fuel moisture measurement gap within traditionally non-fire prone regions. The database will advance our understanding of temperate fuel moisture dynamics and forms a fundamental contribution towards the development of a fire danger rating system for traditionally non-fire prone regions such as the UK.

Peatland drainage is a large source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. While conversion to agriculture is widely acknowledged to lead to "irrecoverable" carbon (C) losses, in contrast the C impacts of peatland forestry are poorly understood, especially in intensively managed plantations. Losses of C from peat oxidation are highly variable and can be compensated for by gains of C in trees, depending on the lifecycle of the timber and timescale considered. Here, we used ITRAX scanning to enable rapid detection of the Hekla 4 cryptotephra layer as a reliable chronological marker above which peat properties and C stocks could be compared between open and afforested blanket bog cores in the Flow Country of Northern Scotland. At one site, Bad a' Cheò, we combine replicated core pair comparisons (n = 19) with timber extraction data to derive net ecosystem C balance over the lifetime of the plantation. Here the reduction in peat C carbon storage above Hekla 4 in afforested samples (67 t C ha-1) is only partially compensated by tree C sequestration (47 t C ha-1), leading to a net ecosystem C balance indicating a loss of 20 t C ha-1 over the 50 years since the plantation was established. At that site, ∼65 % of tree C rapidly returned to the atmosphere, as it was primarily used for heat and power generation. Across the wider Flow country region, a simplified paired sampling method was adopted at eight further sites, finding a either a loss or negligible change in peat C storage above Hekla 4 in afforested samples with a mean loss of 86 t C ha-1 and median loss of 50 t C ha-1. This study suggests that potentially substantial C losses have been an unintended consequence of non-native conifer afforestation over deep blanket bogs.

Capsule The breeding productivity of the Common Scoter population in Scotland's Flow Country remained relatively stable during a 44% population decline in Britain and Ireland. Aim To investigate breeding productivity changes in the eastern Flow Country's Common Scoter population over 22 years and identify possible threats and causes of change during a period of national population decline. Methods Common Scoters from 32 breeding sites were surveyed annually between 2002 and 2023. Each site was visited two to three times in May (pre-nesting period) and two to three times in July and August (post-hatching period) to record the numbers of adult and juvenile Common Scoters. Results Between 2002 and 2023, whilst the Common Scoter population declined (approximately 44% from 27 to 15 breeding pairs) across the study area, breeding productivity (defined as large ducklings per female) remained stable, averaging 0.44 (range of annual means 0.00-1.06) large ducklings per female. The number of small ducklings per female also remained relatively stable. A year of higher breeding productivity did not result in an increase in the number of breeding females in the following years, suggesting that the cause of the population decline lies away from the breeding region. Conclusion Breeding productivity needs to increase, and poor breeding seasons need to be prevented to help maintain this population. The causes of the Common Scoter's decline away from the breeding area need to be resolved to prevent local extinction. This could be assisted with the removal of non-native forestry plantations in the area, which has been observed to benefit other ground-nesting species by alleviating predation pressure, and by maintaining lake habitat quality, as reflected in shallow water and abundant large invertebrates.

Peatlands are globally important stores of soil carbon (C) formed over millennial timescales but are at risk of destabilization by human and climate disturbance. Pools are ubiquitous features of many peatlands and can contain very high concentrations of C mobilized in dissolved and particulate organic form and as the greenhouses gases carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and methane (CH4 ). The radiocarbon content (14 C) of these aquatic C forms tells us whether pool C is generated by contemporary primary production or from destabilized C released from deep peat layers where it was previously stored for millennia. We present novel 14 C and stable C (δ13 C) isotope data from 97 aquatic samples across six peatland pool locations in the United Kingdom with a focus on dissolved and particulate organic C and dissolved CO2 . Our observations cover two distinct pool types: natural peatland pools and those formed by ditch blocking efforts to rewet peatlands (restoration pools). The pools were dominated by contemporary C, with the majority of C (~50%-75%) in all forms being younger than 300 years old. Both pool types readily transform and decompose organic C in the water column and emit CO2 to the atmosphere, though mixing with the atmosphere and subsequent CO2 emissions was more evident in natural pools. Our results show little evidence of destabilization of deep, old C in natural or restoration pools, despite the presence of substantial millennial-aged C in the surrounding peat. One possible exception is CH4 ebullition (bubbling), with our observations showing that millennial-aged C can be emitted from peatland pools via this pathway. Our results suggest that restoration pools formed by ditch blocking are effective at preventing the release of deep, old C from rewetted peatlands via aquatic export.

Globally, major efforts are being made to restore peatlands to maximise their resilience to anthropogenic climate change, which puts continuous pressure on peatland ecosystems and modifies the geography of the environmental envelope that underpins peatland functioning. A probable effect of climate change is reduction in the waterlogged conditions that are key to peatland formation and continued accumulation of carbon (C) in peat. C sequestration in peatlands arises from a delicate imbalance between primary production and decomposition, and microbial processes are potentially pivotal in regulating feedbacks between environmental change and the peatland C cycle. Increased soil temperature, caused by climate warming or disturbance of the natural vegetation cover and drainage, may result in reductions of long-term C storage via changes in microbial community composition and metabolic rates. Moreover, changes in water table depth alter the redox state and hence have broad consequences for microbial functions, including effects on fungal and bacterial communities especially methanogens and methanotrophs. This article is a perspective review of the effects of climate change and ecosystem restoration on peatland microbial communities and the implications for C sequestration and climate regulation. It is authored by peatland scientists, microbial ecologists, land managers and non-governmental organisations who were attendees at a series of three workshops held at The University of Manchester (UK) in 2019–2020. Our review suggests that the increase in methane flux sometimes observed when water tables are restored is predicated on the availability of labile carbon from vegetation and the absence of alternative terminal electron acceptors. Peatland microbial communities respond relatively rapidly to shifts in vegetation induced by climate change and subsequent changes in the quantity and quality of below-ground C substrate inputs. Other consequences of climate change that affect peatland microbial communities and C cycling include alterations in snow cover and permafrost thaw. In the face of rapid climate change, restoration of a resilient microbiome is essential to sustaining the climate regulation functions of peatland systems. Technological developments enabling faster characterisation of microbial communities and functions support progress towards this goal, which will require a strongly interdisciplinary approach.