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| One half of Ontario's Far North is made up of peatlands. Peat forms when decaying plants accumulate very slowly (over hundreds to thousands of years). The Far North is part of one of the most important carbon sinks in the world. |
The Far North covers more than a third of Ontario’s landbase and is rich in natural resources. Under the Far North Act, MNR is working with First Nations to develop community-based land use plans that balance protecting the environment with using those resources sustainably. To support this effort, MNR researchers are working to fill gaps in the understanding of Far North ecosystems.
“Much of the Far North area is peatlands, which are important nationally and globally, both because of the carbon they contain and their influence on water quality,” explains OFRI research scientist Jim McLaughlin. “These peatland ecosystems are complex, with highly variable topography and hydrology, and are thought to be sensitive to environmental change partly due to the extent of permafrost. Our challenge is to accurately estimate how much carbon the peatlands contain and how it might be affected by changes in climate and proposed development.”
McLaughlin began studying peatlands in northern Ontario during 2004 as part of his quest to develop soil carbon- and hydrology-based indicators of sustainable natural resource management. The indicators support the development of land use policy and plans and provincial state of the forest reports. As it turns out, that work has proven helpful in providing a base for his current studies in the Far North.
Kara Webster, project partner and researcher with the Canadian Forest Service-Great Lakes Forestry Centre, provides some background: “Over the past decade, we’ve been collecting data on peatlands near White River to determine how changes in the plant community of different peatland types affects carbon and nutrient cycling and water pH. We used that information to calibrate a simulation model known as DNDC (DeNitrification-DeComposition). This model can be used to predict plant growth, soil temperature and moisture, changes in soil carbon, nitrogen leaching, and trace gas emissions. Now that we’ve calibrated it for Ontario conditions, we can use this model to better understand peatland hydrology and nutrient cycling in the Far North.”
OFRI’s biochemical lab technologist Maara Packalen has also been conducting research to help calibrate the DNDC model for northern Ontario peatlands. She and her collaborators simulated drought by controlling water table levels in the White River peatlands. This work provided key information about the possible effects of changes in water table levels on carbon cycling.
McLaughlin adds: “We will be using the DNDC model to predict how various management activities, such as hydroelectric power and peat mining, might affect Ontario’s peatland carbon budget.”
McLaughlin and Webster are collaborating with university researchers (Toronto, Western, McGill, Trent, Carleton, New Brunswick) to study how changes in climate affect carbon storage and permafrost at Polar Bear Provincial Park and in the Attawapiskat and Moose River basins. University of Toronto researchers are particularly interested in what controls carbon cycles and changes in peatlands and are using reconstruction methods to explore the history of how these peatlands formed.
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| OFRI research technicians extract peat cores from a site in the Far North. These cores are revealing clues about how important elements like carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycle through peatlands. |
As a result, researchers have been extracting peat cores to help answer questions such as how deep is the permafrost? Have water movement patterns changed over the years and if so how and what might be causing it? What is the fire history of these peatlands and has it changed over time? And how fast did the peat carbon accumulate?
“Through a partnership with Ministry of the Environment, we’re collecting weather and carbon flux data,” McLaughlin says. ”When combined with the peat and permafrost data collected with University of Toronto partners and remotely sensed data on topography, permafrost extent and thawing rates, net primary production, fire behaviour, and soil moisture, this data will feed a spatial biogeochemical model, known at the McGill Wetland Model developed at McGill University, to help answer our questions.”
The McGill model, developed for global assessments, incorporates the main carbon cycling processes in northern peatlands and simulates how carbon moves between peatlands and the atmosphere. This model was previously calibrated for the Mer Bleue bog near Ottawa and peatlands in Sweden, but McLaughlin and partners from McGill, Trent, and Carleton are now testing the various model inputs at a study site near Attiwapiskat. They hope to use this model to scale their site level information up to the regional level to show what will happen with carbon and permafrost under various climate and management scenarios.
In addition to supporting land use planning in the Far North, McLaughlin’s work supports MNR’s climate change strategy and action plan. Much of what he and his colleagues learn will be used to report on climate change indicators for wetlands (changes in water table levels, plant species composition, and net primary productivity) and peatlands (changes in extent of permafrost area and/or annual freeze/thaw dates).
“Our work certainly won’t answer all the questions we have about Far North peatlands,” McLaughlin says, “but we will be able to provide some key information to support good land use decisions.”
For more information about Far North peat and carbon cycling research, contact Jim McLaughlin, (705)946-7418, jim.mclaughlin@ontario.ca.
Want to read more? For PDFs of these journal articles, e-mail information.ofri@ontario.ca.
Alkalinity and Acidity Cycling and Fluxes in an Intermediate Fen Peatland in Northern Ontario
The Importance of Water Table in Controlling Dissolved Carbon Dynamics Along a Fen Successional Gradient
Biogeochemical Cycling and Chemical Fluxes in a Managed Northern Forested Wetland, Michigan, USA
Peatland Stream Lipid Biogeochemistry Features in an Intermediate Fen Peatland, Ontario Canada
Recovery of Carbon and Nutrient Pools in a Northern Forested Wetland 11 Years After Harvesting and Site Preparation
For information about related research and publications, visit Jim McLaughlin's profile on OFRI's People page.
