News

By Nancy Goucher

Can-Peat: Peatlands as nature-based climate solutions got down to work at its first annual workshop held in Waterloo, ON at the end of January 2023. The meeting brought together 36 researchers, NGOs, industry, government and Indigenous communities from across Canada to discuss plans for meeting their ambitious goals which include creating a Canadian peatland network, developing a database to house peatland carbon data, advancing peatland carbon models, and identifying mechanisms for implementing peatland nature-based solutions.

The Can-Peat newsletter will be published four times a year. Articles will focus on research updates, upcoming events, and research team profiles.

We also hope to include features and updates from our partners, collaborators, and the broader Canadian peatland community so if you have an idea for article or have a great photo, please get in touch at canpeat@uwaterloo.ca!

Can-Peat is divided into activities to achieve our 5 project goals. 11 out of 16 research activities are now underway. Visit our activity page to learn more about our research efforts and meet our dedicated graduate students and postdocs.

This year's annual meeting built on the main themes of the project discussed at our 2023 Kickoff such as Indigenous engagement and data sovereignty and accessibility. We also met with our advisory committees to discuss the project's direction and progress.

Drs. Rezanezhad and Van Cappellen of Can-Peat have published a paper in Geoderma on synthesis data analysis investigating the spatial distribution pattern of temperature sensitivity (Q10) of peat respiration and its correlation with climate conditions, soil properties, and hydrology. 

Can-Peat is excited to announce our annual meeting on February 20-22 in Quebec City. Although the main meeting is for members only, we are hosting a public Peatland Science Symposium jointly with the Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG). Additionally, the outcomes will be shared in the next newsletter so stay tuned!

Dr. Saraswati, formally of Dr. Strack's research group, currently of the Ecohydrology Research Group, wins NSERC Banting fellowship.

For more information: https://uwaterloo.ca/ecohydrology/news/saraswati-wins-prestigious-nserc-banting-postdoctoral

Looking for terrestrial or aquatic CO2 and CH4 fluxes, and supporting enviro data
Deadline: December, 2023
On behalf of the ABCflux team

Katie Hettinga, starting her MSc in September, shares her experiences at the RE3 conference and GPI/Can-Peat workshop. 

Have you deposited your datasets into databases? Can-Peat, with PhD candidate Maryam Bayatvarkeshi, is working to improve peatland data accessibility.