The essential carbon service provided by northern peatlands

Lorna I. Harris*, Karen Richardson, Kelly A. Bona, Scott J. Davidson, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Michelle Garneau, Jim McLaughlin, Felix Nwaishi, David Olefeldt, Maara Packalen, Nigel T. Roulet, F. Meg Southee, Maria Strack, Kara L. Webster, Sophie L. Wilkinson, Justina C. Ray

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

<jats:p>Northern peatlands have cooled the global climate by accumulating large quantities of soil carbon (C) over thousands of years. Maintaining the C sink function of these peatlands and their immense long‐term soil C stores is critical for achieving net‐zero global carbon dioxide (CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>) emissions by 2050 to mitigate climate warming. One‐quarter of the world’s northern peatlands are in Canada, with these mostly intact ecosystems providing a global C service that is increasingly recognized as a critical part of nature‐based solutions to combat climate change. However, land‐use change and other disturbances threaten these globally important stores of “irrecoverable C” (that is, soil C lost to disturbance that will take centuries to recover). Inadequate policy safeguards to avoid conversion and degradation, and the limited quantification and reporting of peatland greenhouse‐gas emissions and removals, increase the vulnerability of these peatlands. Targeted policies from local to global scales will be needed for improved decision making and incentivizing long‐term C management of northern peatlands.</jats:p>
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)222-230
Number of pages0
JournalFrontiers in Ecology and the Environment
Volume20
Issue number4
Early online date15 Nov 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2022

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The essential carbon service provided by northern peatlands'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this