The wetland with the trees:
My long-term relationship with swamp gases.
Meg Schmidt (PhD candidate supervised by Maria Strack)
Swamps get a pretty bad rap, but we don't actually know that much about them, and in Southern Ontario swamps are now the most common type of wetland due to conversion of the others for development and agriculture. Swamps are treed wetlands, and like all wetlands, they take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through plants, but they also release carbon dioxide and methane from the soil and even tree trunks. Over the last four years I have measured these exchanges, along with the amount of carbon stored in the soil, vegetation, and trees, to understand the role of swamps in the carbon cycle and their possible role as Nature-Based Climate Solutions. Join me to learn about swamps, my results, and the trials and tribulations of fieldwork in these beautiful but muddy systems!
