The Newsletter

Winter 2025, vol. 4, issue 1

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. 

The Can-Peat newsletter is published four times a year. Articles focus on research updates from the project and greater peatland community, upcoming peatland-related events, and research team profiles. 

The newsletter is published below in brief. To receive the full version, subscribe with this form.

Fall 2024, vol. 3, issue 4

Monday, October 21, 2024

A Guide on Local Contexts

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.

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.

Big changes are happening in Canada's Arctic region because of climate change. The ground that used to be permanently frozen (called permafrost) is thawing at an increasing rate. This accelerated thaw has significant consequences for the landscape, affecting the stability of infrastructure and the functioning of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The latter includes changing the movement of water and carbon between the land and the atmosphere, with global implications.

Summer 2024, vol. 2, issue 3

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Welcoming Dr. Iqra Naeem

Can-Peat is pleased to welcome Dr. Iqra Naeem who will be joining us as project manager on August 5, 2024 to cover Kim Kleinke's maternity leave.

Spring 2024, vol. 2, issue 2

Thursday, April 11, 2024

Can-Peat 2024 Annual Meeting

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. 

Winter 2024, vol. 2, issue 1

Monday, February 12, 2024

Can-Peat 2024 Annual Meeting

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!

Fall 2023, vol. 1, issue 4

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

Summer 2023, vol. 1, issue 3

Monday, July 31, 2023

The Peatland Project List

Communication and cross-discipline collaboration is often limited to the same groups leading to duplicated efforts and missed synergies. To improve this, Can-Peat is developing a public list of Canadian peatland projects.

Submit your project here!

Spring 2023, vol. 1, issue 2

Monday, April 17, 2023

The Can-Peat Kickoff

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.

Monday, April 17, 2023

How a wildfire changed my PhD

By Christopher Schulze 

In June 2019, a peatland burned near my long-term peatland research site in northernmost Alberta. This changed my PhD, as I and my supervisors David Olefeldt (University of Alberta) and Oliver Sonnentag (Université de Montréal) realized that this presented a rare opportunity.

By Marissa Davies

My project aims to test how the timing and combination of treatments impacts peatland carbon losses and recovery from fire using the Canadian Model for Peatlands (CaMP), which tracks carbon pools and fluxes pre- and post-disturbances. This work will support continued field studies and explore recovery trajectories on timescales of 50-100 years. My work will also help to include more fire scenarios within CaMP that can be used to predict carbon losses from fire at a national scale.

Winter 2022, vol. 1, issue 1

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!

Across Canada, and internationally, peatlands are subject to significant human disturbances, such as agricultural drainage, forestry drainage, peat extraction, and oil sands mining, which may convert them into a significant carbon (C) source, thus jeopardized their climate mitigation function.