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!

Peatlands are the most common type of wetlands, consisting of thick soil layers of partially decomposed organic matter. These ecosystems cover 13 per cent of Canada’s land area, which corresponds to 27 per cent of the world’s peatlands. They provide essential benefits like clean water and food, flood protection, and habitat for a myriad of unique species. Peatlands are also one of the planet’s most effective carbon storage systems, holding about 60 per cent of Canada’s organic soil carbon. More details about Canadian peatlands can be found in the NRCAN database.

Even in the quiet of winter, microorganisms are hard at work in peatlands, cycling nutrients such as carbon. As a result, during winter, peatlands tend to release carbon dioxide (CO₂) through microbial respiration because the plants that absorb CO₂ are dormant. In contrast, plants take in CO₂, via photosynthesis, during the growing season (GS). These seasonal dynamics generally balance out, with peatlands acting as net CO₂ sinks over the course of the year. In Canada, however, winter temperatures are rising faster than other seasons. Warmer winters result in shorter cold periods and longer GSs. While a longer GS may increase the amount of CO₂ peatlands absorb, the warmer conditions could also boost microbial activity, potentially offsetting the extra CO₂ absorbed by plants. This shift in seasonal dynamics could tip the balance and weaken the ability of peatlands to act as carbon sinks. Understanding these seasonal changes is crucial for predicting how peatlands will respond to a changing climate and provide insights into their potential role as nature-based solutions. 

Can-Peat Local Contexts Guide Part 1 is now available

Data and information about Canadian peatlands are valuable to a wide range of knowledge users concerned about the future of peatlands in the country. The Can-Peat project is particularly interested in information related to carbon storage and greenhouse gas exchange in Canadian peatlands to inform Canada’s climate action plan. To achieve that goal, many of the Can-Peat activities aim to make Canadian peatland data more findable and accessible, while also working to support Indigenous data sovereignty. One step that Can-Peat is taking towards this goal is using the Local Contexts Hub as a tool to help identify Indigenous data in its research activities.

To help researchers get started, we are holding a series of drop-in sessions about registering for and using the Local Contexts Hub. These drop-in sessions will be held on Teams on October 21 from 11 am–12 pm ET, October 29, 1–2 pm ET and November 6, 3–4 pm ET. Contact canpeat@uwaterloo.ca if you’d like to attend a drop-in session and need a meeting invitation.

This document serves as a general introduction for new Can-Peat HQP (highly qualified personnel) to the project workings. Please refer to your research group or/and institution’s guidelines and policies for more detailed information.

Variable names for chamber-based measuremnets to assist in separation of fluxes measured with eddy covariance and chambers when possible, to aid in data compilation.

Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have released significant amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide and methane, driving climate change. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is responsible for about 25 per cent of the global warming we experience today. Although methane remains in the atmosphere for about a decade, it has a global warming potential 29.8 times greater than carbon dioxide over 100 years. In the near future however, it will be 82.5 times more potent than carbon dioxide over 20 years due to its short lifetime. This makes reducing methane emissions a highly effective strategy for mitigating climate change.

In Canada, policies have been implemented to reduce methane emissions from human activities, but setting meaningful reduction targets requires accurate estimates of current emissions. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) publishes annual National Inventory Reports (NIR) detailing greenhouse gas emissions, including methane, by sector and region. However, these reports lack a critical piece of information: a detailed map of methane emissions across the country.