One of Canada’s greatest natural resources doesn’t need mining or refining, it just needs researchers to help us leave it alone.
Much justifiable hand wringing about oil and gas production centres on the CO2 pumped into the atmosphere when that oil and gas is burned by cars and industry. Likewise the process of getting to those resources, tearing up acres of peatlands, has a massive impact CO2 emissions. Together they’re a destructive one-two punch for the environment.
“Peatland disturbance, particularly drainage can result in large emissions of soil carbon,” explains Strack, a Canada Research Chair in Ecosystem and Climate. “This means we’re actually creating a large additional source of CO2 emissions. The decomposition of the peat soil can release millions of tonnes of CO2, but even worse, drainage makes these sites extra susceptible to fires and this can result in emissions on the scale of fossil fuels.”
Strack says it is often surprising to Canadians that 12 per cent of the country is covered by peatlands. Canada is a big country, so we actually have the second highest area of peatlands in the world – nearly 1.1 million square kilometers. It’s possible that a whopping 160 billion tonnes of carbon is stored in these soils. If this were released as carbon dioxide, the total mass would be over 585 billion tonnes. That’s roughly 15 years worth of all the oil and gas burned by humans.
In
Canada
it’s
unlikely
all
of
this
carbon
will
be
released,
but
expanding
resource
extraction
in
the
north
is
impacting
larger
and
larger
areas
of
peatlands,
and
the
effect
could
be
globally,
or
at
least
nationally,
significant.
“We
need
to
think
about
these
land-use
GHG
emissions
when
making
decisions
about
the
sustainability
of
our
land
management
and
resource
extraction
choices,”
Strack
says.
Getting data in GHG and land-use emissions isn’t simple. It involves hours spent knee-deep in mud and dirt and swarms of insects. That dedication is worth recognizing on its own, but what makes Strack’s research valuable of a Canada Research Chair is her capacity to include the social dimension by building a transdisciplinary bridge between this raw data and the behaviour of human-led governments, corporations and organizations impacting the peatlands.
Being a Canada Research Chair gives Strack the valuable opportunity to reach out to a greater diversity of stakeholders, learn about the variety of challenges they face with peatland management and restoration, and share ideas across industries.
“Being a Canada Research Chair also enables me to train more students, developing the next generation of researchers and practitioners to continue developing and implementing peatland restoration techniques, critically evaluate outcomes and inform policy on wetland management,” she says.
Inspiring students to making an impact on a part of our environment that is woefully misunderstood considering its significance comes easy to a naturally curious mind like Strack’s.
“I’ve been fascinated by wetlands since I was a child. I’m not quite sure why, but I think they seemed mysterious to me,” says Strack, “Peatlands are incredibly complicated but elegant. Add to this that they are a globally significant store of carbon, the fate of which is important for understanding future climates. That’s what got me hooked.”
Another benefit of working on an environmental problem at the intersection of social and natural science is seeing her work actually make a difference. If you want to get into an argument at Thanksgiving, bring up the economic and environmental trade-off of oil and gas production in Canada. Strack isn’t interested in debates, she’s working towards solutions.
“Methods
are
in
place
that
value
soil
carbon,”
she
wrote
in
a
recent
piece
for
World
Wetlands
Day.
“Farmers
can
be
paid
for
reducing
tillage,
a
practice
that
helps
to
keep
more
carbon
in
agricultural
soils.
International
pressure
to
reduce
greenhouse
gas
emissions
has
started
to
set
the
dollar
value
for
carbon
in
Canada.
The
federal
government
has
mandates
that
all
provinces
set
a
price
for
carbon
that
must
rise
to
at
least
$50
per
tonne
by
2022.
Placing
this
value
on
Canada's
wetland
soil
carbon
stocks
would
make
them
worth
$29
trillion.”
It’s an economic argument that still hasn’t taken hold. People, including top economists, are still tuned to seeing value in what we can extract, not what we can leave in place. Until we transition to renewable energy sources, Strack and her colleagues in the Faculty of Environment work tirelessly to restore a massive landscape disturbed by oil and gas production.
“We focus a lot in my research group of how disturbance affects peatland function and then developing and evaluating restoration techniques,” Strack says. “Those sites that have been effectively restored is what makes me proud. To come to a site that was previously a bare field or an old oil well pad and see it transformed into a functioning peatland ecosystem is an incredible feeling.”
Photos
by: Brandon
Abiog
Words
by: Faculty
of
Environment