BG3.21 | The Future of Northern Peatlands – Sinks or Sources of Atmospheric Carbon?
EDI
The Future of Northern Peatlands – Sinks or Sources of Atmospheric Carbon?
Convener: Melanie Mayes | Co-conveners: Xiaoying Shi, Avni Malhotra, Nitin Chaudhary, Scott J. Davidson

Northern peatlands contain large reservoirs of carbon and are targets for both protection and restoration, serving as critical buffers against climate change. We seek to understand responses of northern peatlands to natural and anthropogenic stressors and disturbances, and how these stressors could potentially shift these systems between functioning as sinks and sources of greenhouse gasses. Changes in the overall ecosystem structure and function are also of interest. We welcome submissions involving experimental manipulations, anthropogenic modifications, gradient studies, and other short- and long-term climate or environmental changes in both natural and restored peatland ecosystems. We welcome modelling studies that use theoretical approaches and observational data to understand current functions and predict future peatland carbon trajectories. Studies are solicited which investigate any combination of overall carbon, chemical, and hydrological balance, by observing total ecosystem and soil fluxes, net ecosystem exchange and respiration, moss and vegetation turnover and succession, microbial community composition and function, and porewater and nutrient chemistry.

Northern peatlands contain large reservoirs of carbon and are targets for both protection and restoration, serving as critical buffers against climate change. We seek to understand responses of northern peatlands to natural and anthropogenic stressors and disturbances, and how these stressors could potentially shift these systems between functioning as sinks and sources of greenhouse gasses. Changes in the overall ecosystem structure and function are also of interest. We welcome submissions involving experimental manipulations, anthropogenic modifications, gradient studies, and other short- and long-term climate or environmental changes in both natural and restored peatland ecosystems. We welcome modelling studies that use theoretical approaches and observational data to understand current functions and predict future peatland carbon trajectories. Studies are solicited which investigate any combination of overall carbon, chemical, and hydrological balance, by observing total ecosystem and soil fluxes, net ecosystem exchange and respiration, moss and vegetation turnover and succession, microbial community composition and function, and porewater and nutrient chemistry.