scholarly journals The essential carbon service provided by northern peatlands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna I Harris ◽  
Karen Richardson ◽  
Kelly A Bona ◽  
Scott J Davidson ◽  
Sarah A Finkelstein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northern Peatlands

scholarly journals Methane flux from drained northern peatlands: Effect of a persistent water table lowering on flux

1993 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 749-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nigel T. Roulet ◽  
R. Ash ◽  
W. Quinton ◽  
Tim Moore
Keyword(s):  
Water Table ◽  
Methane Flux ◽  
Northern Peatlands

Exploring the variation in ecosystem scale methane fluxes and its drivers within a boreal mire complex

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koffi Dodji Noumonvi ◽  
Joshua L. Ratcliffe ◽  
Mats Öquist ◽  
Mats B. Nilsson ◽  
Matthias Peichl
Keyword(s):  
Eddy Covariance ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Atmospheric Methane ◽  
Flux Footprint ◽  
Growing Season Length ◽  
Methane Fluxes ◽  
Northern Peatlands

<p>Northern peatlands cover a small fraction of the earth’s land surface, and yet they are one of the most important natural sources of atmospheric methane. With climate change causing rising temperatures, changes in water balance and increased growing season length, peatland contribution to atmospheric methane concentration is likely to increase, justifying the increased attention given to northern peatland methane dynamics. Northern peatlands often occur as heterogeneous complexes characterized by hydromorphologically distinct features from < 1 m² to tens of km², with differing physical, hydrological and chemical properties. The more commonly understood small-scale variation between hummocks, lawns and hollows has been well explored using chamber measurements. Single tower eddy covariance measurements, with a typical 95% flux footprint of < 0.5 km², have been used to assess the ecosystem scale methane exchange. However, how representative single tower flux measurements are of an entire mire complex is not well understood. To address this knowledge gap, the present study takes advantage of a network of four eddy covariance towers located less than 3 km apart at four mires within a typical boreal mire complex in northern Sweden. The variation of methane fluxes and its drivers between the four sites will be explored at different temporal scales, i.e. half-hourly, daily and at a growing-season scale.</p>

scholarly journals Modelling northern peatlands area and carbon dynamics since the Holocene with the ORCHIDEE-PEAT land surface model (SVN r5488)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunjing Qiu ◽  
Dan Zhu ◽  
Philippe Ciais ◽  
Bertrand Guenet ◽  
Shushi Peng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Storage ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Soil Column ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Peat Core ◽  
Northern Peatlands

Abstract. The importance of northern peatlands in the global carbon cycle has recently been recognized, especially for long-term changes. Yet, the complex interactions between climate and peatland hydrology, carbon storage and area dynamics make it challenging to represent these systems in land surface models. This study describes how peatland are included as an independent sub-grid hydrological soil unit (HSU) into the ORCHIDEE-MICT land surface model. The peatland soil column in this tile is characterized by multi-layered vertical water and carbon transport, and peat-specific hydrological properties. A cost-efficient TOPMODEL approach is implemented to simulate the dynamics of peatland area, calibrated by present-day wetland areas that are regularly inundated or subject to shallow water tables. The model is tested across a range of northern peatland sites and for gridded simulations over the Northern Hemisphere (> 30° N). Simulated northern peatland area (3.9 million km2), peat carbon stock (463 PgC) and peat depth are generally consistent with observed estimates of peatland area (3.4–4.0 million km2), peat carbon (270–540 PgC) and data compilations of peat core depths. Our results show that both net primary production (NPP) and heterotrophic respiration (HR) of northern peatlands increased over the past century in response to CO2 and climate change. NPP increased more rapidly than HR, and thus net ecosystem production (NEP) exhibited a positive trend, contributing a cumulative carbon storage of 11.13 Pg C since 1901, most of it being realized after the 1950s.

scholarly journals Using Terrestrial Laser Scanning to Characterize Peatland Microtopography and Assess Tree Growth Responses to Elevated Temperature and CO2

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake D. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Elevated Temperature ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Primary Production ◽  
Tree Growth ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Net Primary Production ◽  
Growth Responses ◽  
Aboveground Net Primary Production ◽  
Response To Temperature ◽  
Northern Peatlands

Northern peatlands are a major terrestrial carbon (C) store, with an annual sink of 0.1 Pg C yr-1 and a total storage estimate of 547 Pg C. Northern peatlands are also major contributors of atmospheric methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The microtopography of peatlands helps modulate peatland carbon fluxes; however, there is a lack of quantitative characterizations of microtopography in the literature. The lack of formalized schemes to characterize microtopography makes comparisons between studies difficult. Further, many land surface models do not accurately simulate peatland C emissions, in part because they do not adequately represent peatland microtopography and hydrology. The C balance of peatlands is determined by differences in C influxes and effluxes, with the largest being net primary production and heterotrophic respiration, respectively. Tree net primary production at a treed bog in northern Minnesota represented about 13% of C inputs to the peatland, and marks tree aboveground net primary production (ANPP) as an important pathway for C to enter peatlands. Tree species Picea mariana (Black spruce) and Larix Laricina (Tamarack) are typically found in wooded peatlands in North America, and are widely distributed in the North American boreal zone. Therefore, understanding how these species will respond to environmental change is needed to make predictions of peatland C budgets in the future. As the climate warms, peatlands are expected to increase C release to the atmosphere, resulting in a positive feedback loop. Further, climate warming is expected to occur faster in northern latitudes compared to the rest of the globe. The Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE; https://mnspruce.ornl.gov/) manipulates temperature and CO2 concentrations to evaluate the in-situ response of a peatland to environmental change and is located in Minnesota, USA. In this dissertation, I documented surface roughness metrics for peatland microtopography in SPRUCE plots and developed three explicit methods for classifying frequently used microtopographic classes (microforms) for different scientific applications. Subsequently I used one of these characterizations to perform a sensitivity analysis and improve the parameterization of microtopography in a land surface model that was calibrated at the SPRUCE site. The modeled outputs of C from the analyses ranged from 0.8-34.8% when microtopographical parameters were allowed to vary within observed ranges. Further, C related outputs when using our data-driven parameterization differed from outputs when using the default parameterization by -7.9 - 12.2%. Finally, I utilized TLS point clouds to assess the effect elevated temperature and CO2 concentrations had on P. mariana and L. laricina after the first four years of SPRUCE treatments. I observed that P. mariana growth (aboveground net primary production) had a negative response to temperature initially, but the relationship became less pronounced through time. Conversely, L. laricina had no growth response to temperature initially, but developed a positive relationship through time. The divergent growth responses of P. mariana and L. laricina resulted in no detectable change in aboveground net primary production at the community level. Results from this dissertation help improve how peatland microtopography is represented, and improves understanding of how peatland tree growth will respond to environmental change in the future.

Monitoring of water table dynamics in peatlands with OPTRAM: Towards globally applicable algorithms in Google Earth Engine using Landsat and Sentinel-2

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iuliia Burdun ◽  
Michel Bechtold ◽  
Viacheslav Komisarenko ◽  
Annalea Lohila ◽  
Elyn Humphreys ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Water Table ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Short Wave ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Google Earth Engine ◽  
Short Wave Infrared ◽  
Northern Peatlands ◽  
Sentinel 2

<p>Fluctuations of water table depth (WTD) affect many processes in peatlands, such as vegetation development and emissions of greenhouse gases. Here, we present the OPtical TRApezoid Model (OPTRAM) as a new method for satellite-based monitoring of the temporal variation of WTD in peatlands. OPTRAM is based on the response of short-wave infrared reflectance to the vegetation water status. For five northern peatlands with long-term in-situ WTD records, and with diverse vegetation cover and hydrological regimes, we generate a suite of OPTRAM index time series using (a) different procedures to parametrise OPTRAM (peatland-specific manual vs. globally applicable automatic parametrisation in Google Earth Engine), and (b) different satellite input data (Landsat vs. Sentinel-2). The results based on the manual parametrisation of OPTRAM indicate a high correlation with in-situ WTD time-series for pixels with most suitable vegetation for OPTRAM application (mean Pearson correlation of 0.7 across sites), and we will present the performance differences when moving from a manual to an automatic procedure. Furthermore, for the overlap period of Landsat and Sentinel-2, which have different ranges and widths of short-wave infrared bands used for OPTRAM calculation, the impact of the satellite input data to OPTRAM will be analysed. Eventually, the challenge of merging different satellite missions in the derivation of OPTRAM time series will be explored as an important step towards a global application of OPTRAM for the monitoring of WTD dynamics in northern peatlands.</p>

scholarly journals Carbon dynamics in boreal peatlands of the Yenisey region, western Siberia

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 7057-7070 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. D. Schulze ◽  
E. Lapshina ◽  
I. Filippov ◽  
I. Kuhlmann ◽  
D. Mollicone
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Vegetation History ◽  
Accumulation Rate ◽  
West Siberian Plain ◽  
High Accumulation ◽  
Boreal Peatlands ◽  
Constant Rate ◽  
Northern Peatlands ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
Local Hydrology

Abstract. Here we investigate the vegetation history and peat accumulation at the eastern boarder of the West Siberian Plain, near the Yenisey River, south of permafrost. In this region, peat started to accumulate 15 000 years ago as gyttja of shallow lakes in ancient river valleys. This peat is older than previously reported, mainly due to separating particulate organic carbon (POC) from dissolved organic carbon (DOC), which was 1900–6500 years younger than POC. The probability of finding peat layers older than 12 000 years is about 2 %. Peat accumulated as fen peat at a constant rate of 0.2 mm yr−1 and 0.01 kg C m−2 yr−1. The accumulation was higher in ancient river valley environments. Over the last 2000 years these bogs changed into Sphagnum mires which have accumulated up to about 0.1 kg C m−2 yr−1 until present. The long-lasting fen stage, which makes the Yenisey bogs distinct from the western Siberian bogs, is discussed as a consequence of the local hydrology. The high accumulation rate of peat in unfrozen mires is taken as an indication that thawing of permafrost peat may also change northern peatlands into long-lasting carbon sinks.

scholarly journals Delineating northern peatlands using Sentinel-1 time series and terrain indices from local and regional digital elevation models

2019 ◽  
Vol 231 ◽  
pp. 111252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Karlson ◽  
Magnus Gålfalk ◽  
Patrick Crill ◽  
Philippe Bousquet ◽  
Marielle Saunois ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Digital Elevation Models ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Northern Peatlands ◽  
Terrain Indices
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