Our peatland trading cards each showcase only one study conducted at that card's peatland (referenced below). These studies are a small subsection of various important peatland research in Canada.
In addition, Western peatland science lacks proper acknowledgment of and contribution from Indigenous Peoples even though the peatlands in Canada are largely located in the lands and traditional territories of many Indigenous Nations and have been safeguarded by these communities since time immemorial. Within Can-Peat, we aim to conduct ethical research by Braiding Western and Indigenous Science and supporting Indigenous data sovereignty by working with Local Contexts. Regarding our trading cards, we are planning to release a series in collaboration with Indigenous Communities/Peoples focused on peatlands important to them in their languages.
To explore more past peatland research, watch out for the release of our Canadian Peatland Data Portal.
To explore current and upcoming peatland research, search our Peatland Project List.
Series 1
001: St Charles-de-Bellechasse
Les tourbières sont connues pour leur capacité à stocker de grandes quantités de carbone dans le sol et à libérer du méthane. Ces fonctions peuvent être altérées par les effets du changement climatique tels que la baisse du niveau de la nappe phréatique.
En abaissant artificiellement le niveau de la nappe phréatique, les chercheurs ont découvert qu’une plus grande absorption de carbone par les plantes compenserait certaines des pertes de carbone induites par des conditions plus sèches.
Strack, M., & Waddington, J.M. (2007). Response of peatland carbon dioxide and methane fluxes to a water table drawdown experiment. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 21(1), DOI: 10.1029/2006GB00271
002: Harmon Valley
Seismic lines, clear cut linear pathways created for oil and gas exploration, are prevalent in Alberta. Even after decades, the natural forest has not recovered in these areas.
This study found that changes in ground-layer plant community on the seismic line disturbance can contribute to slow tree recovery.
Dabros, A., Higgins, K.L., Santala, K., & Aubin, I. (2022). Plant functional trait approach to assess the persistence of seismic line footprint in boreal peatlands of Alberta, Canada. Forest Ecology and Management, 503(1), DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119751
003: Bois-des-Bel
Disturbance from human activities can cause peatlands to release carbon into the atmosphere. Ecological restoration is recommended to reduce these emissions. However, peatland restoration can also produce emissions of the greenhouse gas (GHG), methane.
In this study, methane emissions remained low after restoration suggesting that peatland restoration can help mitigate GHG emissions.
Nugent, K.A., Strachan, I.B., Strack, M., Roulet, N.T., Ström, L., & Chanton, J.P. (2021). Cutover Peat Limits Methane Production Causing Low Emission at a Restored Peatland. JGR Biogeosciences, 126(12), DOI: 10.1029/2020JG005909
004: Burns Bog
Canada is home to many peatlands. While much of our peatland area is intact, the largest raised bog on the west coast of the Americas, Burns Bog, has been significantly degraded.
In this study, Sphagnum colonies, important for peat formation, were found to be re-establishing following restoration efforts.
Howie, S.A., Munson, T.G., Hebda, R.J., Jeglum, J.K., Whitfield, P.H., & Dakin, R.A. (2019). Restoration of Burns Bog, Delta, British Columbia, Canada. Pristine Mire Landscapes: https://peatlands.org/assets/uploads/2019/06/ipc2008p51-55-howie-restoration-of-burns-bog.pdf
005: Mer Bleue
Northern peatlands are especially important in the global carbon cycle because they hold a quarter of the world's soil carbon. However, changing temperatures and precipitation under climate change may alter peatland carbon cycling.
In this study, carbon balances over 6 years at Mer Bleue were not significantly changed from historical records.
Roulet, N., Lafleur, P.M., Richard, P.J.H., Moore, T., Humphreys, E.R., & Bubier, J. (2007). Contemporary carbon balance an late Holocene carbon accumulation in a northern peatland. Global Change Biology, 13(2), DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2006.01292.x
006: Pauciflora Fen
Les tourbières sont un élément important de l'hydrologie du paysage car elles fournissent de l'eau à de nombreux écosystèmes. L'eau dans les tourbières est stockée sous de multiples formes qui ne sont pas toutes bien comprises.
Dans cette étude, on a constaté que la glace souterraine saisonnière affectait l'hydrologie des tourbières, permettant à ces dernières de fournir de l'eau aux zones situées en aval au printemps.
Van Huizen, B., Petrone, R.M., Price, J., Quinton, W., & Pomeroy, J.W. (2019). Seasonal Ground Ice Impacts on Spring Ecohydrological Conditions in a Western Boreal Plains Peatland. Hydrological Processes, 34(8), DOI: 10.1002/hyp.13626
007: Beverly Swamp
Ground and water temperatures in peatlands effect plants, animals, and energy balances. These important thermal regimes are in turn affected by human disturbances.
In this study, a model was developed and tested to simulate thermal regimes and can be used to predict response to disturbance across mid-latitude swamps.
Smith, S.L., & Woo, M. (1986) Ground and Water Temperature in a Mid-Latitude Swamp. Canadian Water Resources Journal, 11(1), DOI: 10.4296/cwrj1101076
008: Kirby
Canada’s boreal region is crisscrossed with seismic lines, long linear disturbances created for oil and gas exploration. Restoration efforts involve re-creating small-scale topography, e.g., 1 m high soil mounds. This may have unintended effects on soil properties.
In this study, changes in soil properties following restoration suggests carbon may be lost at the expense of vegetation recovery.
Davidson, S.J., Goud, E.M., Franklin, C., Nielsen, S.E., & Strack, M. (2020). Seismic Line Disturbance Alters Soil Physical and Chemical Properties Across Boreal Forest and Peatland Soils. Frontiers in Earth Science, 8, DOI: 10.3389/feart.2020.00281
009: Robinsons Pasture
Peatlands are important to global carbon cycling, taking up carbon dioxide and releasing methane. Human activities, such as agriculture, may have impacts on peatland carbon cycling and its drivers.
In this study, methane emissions were near zero with changing seasonal drivers, like temperature and water table. Models will need to account for these drivers to estimate methane exchange in managed peatlands.
Wang, M., Wu, J., Luan, J., Lafleur, P., Chen, H., & Zhu, X. (2017). Near-zero methane emission from an abandoned boreal peatland pasture based on eddy covariance measurements. PLoS ONE, 12(2), DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189692
010: South Julius
Peat is extracted in Canada to produce growing media. Following peat extraction, peatlands are often restored via the moss layer transfer technique to re-establish carbon storage. While generally successful, this technique has had less success in fens.
In this study, active rewetting was found to be a potential alternative to the moss layer transfer technique in specific scenarios.
Turmel-Courchesne, L., Davies, M.A., Guêné-Nanchen, M., & Strack, M. (2023). Rewetting increases vegetation cover and net growing season carbon uptake under fen conditions after peat-extraction in Manitoba, Canada. Scientific Reports, 13(1), DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47879-y
Series 2
Learn more about Indigenous Data Sovereignty.
All peatlands in Canada are on Indigenous territory: results from all methods used in Canadian peatlands is Indigenous data. Indigenous data sovereignty is defined as the right of Indigenous Peoples to govern the collection, ownership and application of their data or data about them. Consult the Can-Peat Local Contexts guide for further guidance.
Toutes les tourbières du Canada se trouvent sur des territoires autochtones : les résultats de toutes les méthodes utilisées dans les tourbières canadiennes constituent des données autochtones. La souveraineté des données autochtones est définie comme le droit des Premiers Peuples de gouverner la collecte, la propriété et l’application de leurs données ou des données les concernant. Consultez le guide Can-Peat Local Contexts pour plus d’informations.
011: Scotty Creek Bog
Eddy covariance is used to measure the exchange of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, between peatlands and the atmosphere. The technique works by making frequent measurements (many times per second) of wind speed and direction alongside measurements of the concentration of the greenhouse gas of interest.
Helbig, M., Chasmer, L.E., Desai, A.R., Kljun, N., Quinton, W.L. & Sonnentag, O. (2017). Direct and indirect climate change effects on carbon dioxide fluxes in a thawing boreal forest-wetland landscape. Global Change Biology, 23: 3231-3248 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.13638
012: Kinoje Lake Peatland
Carbon dioxide exchange in peatland can be estimated from information gathered by satellite remote sensing. For example, models can predict ecosystem productivity from attributes of the land surface measured by satellites. These predictions are validated with ground-based measurements.
Beaver, J., Humphreys, E.R., & King, D. (2024). Random Forest Development and Modeling of Gross Primary Productivity in the Hudson Bay Lowlands. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, 50(1).
013: Seba Beach Tourbière
La décomposition est le processus par lequel des molécules complexes sont décomposées en molécules plus simples. L’indice des sachets de thé (Tea Bag Index - TBI) est une méthode simple et standardisée pour mesurer les taux de décomposition dans les sols.
MacDonald, E., Brummell, M.E., Bieniada, A., Elliott, J., Engering, A., Gauthier, T-L., Saraswati, S., Touchette, S., Turmel-Courchesne, L., & Strack, M. (2018). Using the Tea Bag Index to characterize decomposition rates in restored peatlands. Boreal Environment Research, 23: 221-235.
https://www.borenv.net/BER/archive/pdfs/ber23/ber23-221-235.pdf
014: Taiga Plains Black Spruce Peatland
Plant biomass represents an important stock of carbon. Tree biomass can be estimated by equations that relate tree height and stem diameter to total biomass. New techniques using drones to measure these aspects of the trees have also proven effective in peatland biomass estimation.
Wagers, S., Castilla, G., Filiatrault, M., & Sanchez-Azofeifa, G.A. (2021). Using TLS-Measured Tree Attributes to Estimate Aboveground Biomass in Small Black Spruce Trees. Forests, 12(11): 1521. DOI:10.3390/f12111521
015: Western Hudson Bay Lowlands
The peat core method involves extracting vertical samples of peat using a corer. Peat cores are used to study carbon storage and create historical records of environmental change, such as vegetation, wildfire, and water table changes.
Davies, M.A., McLaughlin, J.W., Packalen, M.S., & Finkelstein, S.A. (2023). Using Holocene paleo-fire records to estimate carbon stock vulnerabilities in Hudson Bay Lowlands peatlands. FACETS, 8: 1-26. DOI: 10.1139/facets-2022-0162
016: Cold Lake Pad
Closed chambers are used to measure fluxes of carbon dioxide and methane between the surface and the atmosphere. The chamber encloses a volume of air and the flux is determined from the rate of increase (or decrease) in the concentration of the gas of interest during the chamber closure.
Lemmer, M., Rochefort, L., & Strack, M. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Dynamics in Restored Fens After In-Situ Oil Sands Well Pad Disturbances of Canadian Boreal Peatlands. (2020) Frontiers in Earth Science, 8. DOI: 10.3389/feart.2020.557943
017: Peace River IPad
La composition des communautés végétales est un facteur clé du bilan carbone des tourbières. L’état de santé des écosystèmes et la biodiversité peuvent être évalués grâce à des relevés de végétation en tourbière, en documentant les espèces végétales et leur répartition.
Xu, B., Rochefort, L., Bird, M., Khadka, B., & Strack, M. 2021. Restoration of boreal peatland impacted by an in-situ oil sands well-pad 1: Vegetation response. Restoration Ecology, 30(3):e13514. DOI: 10.1111/rec.13514
018: Mount Merrit
Litter produced by peatland plants is the main input of carbon into peat soils. To determine litterfall input from leaves, twigs and branches, collectors lined with mesh are placed on or above the surface. Collected litter is dried and weighed.
Kendall, R.A., Harper, K.A., Burton, D. & Hamdan K. (2021). The role of temperate treed swamps as a carbon sink in southwestern Nova Scotia. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 51(1): 78-88.DOI: 10.1139/cjfr-2019-0311
019: Tomorrow Lake
Measuring water tables in peatlands is essential for understanding their hydrology and ecological functions. Stable water tables preserve peatland health and their role in mitigating climate change. Water table measurements are taken from monitoring wells using pressure transducers or manually using beeper tape or “blow sticks”.
Baird, A.J. & Low, R.G. (2022). The water table: Its conceptual basis, its measurement and its usefulness as a hydrological variable. Hydrological Processes, 36: e14622. DOI: 10.1002/hyp.14622
020: Brazeau Fen
Plant biomass represents an important stock of carbon. aboveground biomass of the ground layer is often estimated by harvesting all plants within a plot of a known area. Collected biomass is then dried and weighed.
Megan, S. (2021). Impacts of seismic line restoration on CO2, CH4, and biomass. University of Waterloo.
http://hdl.handle.net/10012/17660