Canada is known for having the largest peatland carbon stock and the second-largest peatland complex in the world, which plays a pivotal role in mitigating global climate change. Disturbance of peatlands from drainage, burning, agriculture, forestry, and extraction can be a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. Accordingly, the protection of the peatlands is integral to mitigating global climate change. However, natural phenomena and anthropogenic disturbances have resulted in devastating and irreversible impacts on the peatland ecosystem which in turn encourages researchers to investigate the current condition of peatlands. Given that, a large number of studies have been carried out on peatlands in the last decades. Each investigation has focused on a specific objective from carbon and methane fluxing to peat properties, and hydrological and meteorological components in different ecosites and in different parts of Canada. The findings have led to a great deal of datasets. However, only a fraction of these have been published. Although many studies have been done, communication and collaboration between peatland experts is limited leading to duplicated efforts, knowledge gaps, and missed opportunities for synergies that could advance peatland research more quickly. These datasets need to be compiled to find out available information and knowledge gaps.
Greenhouse gas fluxes from peatlands are influenced by a wide range of interrelated physical, chemical, and biological processes, with the water table being often understood as the single most important factor. Therefore, the study of greenhouse emissions in peatlands and their impact on climate change requires plenty of relevant components. Monitoring all of them on a large scale is unfeasible. Thus, collecting and organizing the available datasets will assist to fill out the knowledge gaps and pave the way for the next studies. Many investigations have been done so far; however, the compiled datasets will broaden our understanding of what has been done and what needs to be done. Moreover, it will help tie the findings and provide rational decisions in the protection of peatlands. Regarding this fact, the second objective of Can-peat is compiling a metadata repository on Canadian peatland carbon stocks, greenhouse gas exchange, and supporting data. My work over the summer has been to begin compiling available datasets from databases such as the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR) and Lunaris. These datasets will then be used to build a metadata repository to serve as a central location to search for peatland data.