Large carbon losses from burned permafrost peatlands during post-fire succession ...

The carbon (C) storage of boreal peatlands is threatened by an intensifying wildfire regime. Between 2019 and 2023 we used eddy covariance and surface closed chambers to monitor two permafrost peatlands in boreal western Canada that burned in 2019 and 2007. Deeper thaw, warmer soils, and slow vegeta...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Christopher Schulze, Oliver Sonnentag, Craig A. Emmerton, Lorna Harris, Haley Alcock, Kate Marouelli, Gabriel Hould Gosselin, and David Olefeldt
Format: Dataset
Language:unknown
Published: University of Alberta Library 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.7939/r3-hxcz-1446
https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/25c4cf9c-802a-43b7-aa7e-771e8b0dbce6
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Summary:The carbon (C) storage of boreal peatlands is threatened by an intensifying wildfire regime. Between 2019 and 2023 we used eddy covariance and surface closed chambers to monitor two permafrost peatlands in boreal western Canada that burned in 2019 and 2007. Deeper thaw, warmer soils, and slow vegetation recovery caused the 2019 Burn to be a net carbon dioxide (CO2) source (+104 g C m-2 yr-1) for four years post-fire, despite reduced soil respiration. The 2007 site was a sink (-35 g C m-2 yr-1) 12 to 15 years post-fire, similar to undisturbed peatlands. We estimate that wildfire caused a loss (~2,500 g C m-2) from permafrost peatlands, with ~1,700 g C m-2 due to combustion and ~800 g C m-2 due to net CO2 losses during post-fire succession. This highlights the importance of the post-fire CO2 losses and emphasizes the vulnerability of permafrost peatland soil C to fire. ...