Supporting Our Climate Champions

Covering just 3% of all land on Earth yet storing over 1/3 of all soil carbon, peatlands stand as our strongest champions against climate change. Peatlands differ from wetlands in their ability to accumulate peat, made up of undecayed plant material. The slow decomposition of peat allows for the long-term storage of carbon dioxide within the ecosystem.

With colonization, the peatlands of North America were drained for development and dismissed as wastelands, their degradation releasing that stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and worsening the greenhouse effect. It wasn’t until recently that we began to understand the true value of peatlands, not just as carbon stores, but as water filterers, biodiversity hotspots, and flood mitigators.

Despite our recent appreciation for peatlands, the damage has been done. Over 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide is released from damaged peatlands annually. In the race against climate change, restoring these systems and returning their carbon storage capabilities is crucial. Our challenge lies in understanding what the optimal environmental conditions are to support peatland functionality. We can do this by looking at the conditions of the past.

We can use historical ecology to look at patterns of ecosystem change over time. Using indicators like pollen and plant fossils we can see past changes in vegetation, hydrology, climate, and carbon. Looking to the past allows us to see when a peatland was at its most productive, what the environmental conditions were at this time, and when and how they changed.

With my research, I focused on the mining city of Sudbury, Ontario. Over 100 years ago, Sudbury was a well-known producer of nickel, and at the same time, became a major producer of a toxic by-product called sulphur dioxide. Over 100 million tonnes of sulphur dioxide was released into the atmosphere, raining down as acid rain and decimating all ecosystems in the region. With improved mining infrastructure in the 1970s and subsequent restoration efforts, many of these systems have recovered. But peatlands have struggled.

By looking into the past, we know that pre-industry the peatlands in the Sudbury region were highly diverse, highly productive and stored large amounts of carbon. But with development, and sulphur dioxide emissions, we saw a release of much of the stored carbon and a loss of biodiversity. Presently, we have seen some recovery in terms of vegetation and microbial communities, but the overall system is not functioning.

What is missing from present-day peatland systems that existed in the productive states of the past? How can we return these missing pieces to the peatlands of Sudbury, and beyond? These are questions I will be answering as my research progresses, and the answers are crucial to supporting our climate change champions.

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