Can-Peat trading cards offer a fun, quick, and unique way to learn more about the importance of peatlands. Currently, there are two series available featuring various peatlands across Canada and links to published research articles. Series 1 is more focused on highlighting research sites, while series 2 showcases various field measurement techniques.
Series 3 is being developed with our Indigenous Advisory Council to feature different peatland plants. Instead of Western Science research articles, the back of the cards will include various information about the plants, such as important places they can be found, audio pronunciation of plant names in Indigenous languages, recipes, stories, and photos or illustrations.
Contact us at canpeat@uwaterloo.ca to request cards from any series or submit ideas for series 4!
Series 1 highlight: Burns Bog
This card from series 1 is of Burns Bog in British Columbia. While much of Canada's peatland area is intact, this bog, the largest raised bog on the west coast of the Americas, has been significantly degraded. However, Sphagnum colonies, important for peat formation, were found to be re-establishing following restoration efforts. Read more about restoration efforts in Burns Bog in the below study.
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
Series 2 highlight: Cold Lake Pad
This card features the common flux measurement method, closed chambers. At this site, the chambers were adapted to be used on open water.
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.
Read more about this method and greenhouse gas emissions:
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
