Peatlands of Canada database

Tarnócai, Charles; Kettles, I M; Lacelle, B

doi:10.4095/213529

Cited by 37 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…These studies also highlighted the existing uncertainties in current estimates and the need for more detailed assessments of such carbon pools and the character of OM, and a denser coverage with field data on shallow and deep carbon. For the peatland component of the permafrost soil carbon pool relative good estimates of carbon distribution with depth exist based on peatland inventories and thousands of peat cores from the circum Arctic [ Gorham , 1991; Smith et al , 2004; Tarnocai et al , 2000; Jones and Yu , 2010]. For mineral soils in permafrost regions, however, such spatial and depth information is still very rare, though it has been shown that including deeper permafrost and soil strata into carbon inventories considerably increases the permafrost carbon pool [ Bockheim and Hinkel , 2007; Ping et al , 2008].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fossil organic matter characteristics in permafrost deposits of the northeast Siberian Arctic

Schirrmeister¹,

Grosse²,

Wetterich³

et al. 2011

J. Geophys. Res.

195

208

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[1] Permafrost deposits constitute a large organic carbon pool highly vulnerable to degradation and potential carbon release due to global warming. Permafrost sections along coastal and river bank exposures in NE Siberia were studied for organic matter (OM) characteristics and ice content. OM stored in Quaternary permafrost grew, accumulated, froze, partly decomposed, and refroze under different periglacial environments, reflected in specific biogeochemical and cryolithological features. OM in permafrost is represented by twigs, leaves, peat, grass roots, and plant detritus. The vertical distribution of total organic carbon (TOC) in exposures varies from 0.1 wt % of the dry sediment in fluvial deposits to 45 wt % in Holocene peats. Variations in OM parameters are related to changes in vegetation, bioproductivity, pedogenic processes, decomposition, and sedimentation rates during past climate variations. High TOC, high C/N, and low d 13 C reflect less decomposed OM accumulated under wet, anaerobic soil conditions characteristic of interglacial and interstadial periods. Glacial and stadial periods are characterized by less variable, low TOC, low C/N, and high d13 C values indicating stable environments with reduced bioproductivity and stronger OM decomposition under dryer, aerobic soil conditions. Based on TOC data and updated information on bulk densities, we estimate average organic carbon inventories for ten different stratigraphic units in northeast Siberia, ranging from 7.2 kg C m −3 for Early Weichselian fluvial deposits, to 33.2 kg C m −3 for Middle Weichselian Ice Complex deposits, to 74.7 kg C m −3 for Holocene peaty deposits. The resulting landscape average is likely about 25% lower than previously published permafrost carbon inventories.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fossil organic matter characteristics in permafrost deposits of the northeast Siberian Arctic

Schirrmeister¹,

Grosse²,

Wetterich³

et al. 2011

J. Geophys. Res.

195

208

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“…We summarized land cover data to the following classes: deciduous upland, evergreen upland, grassland, grassland shrubby upland, mixed upland, recent burns, snow and ice, tundra, water bodies, and wetland/peatlands, and used the deciduous upland, evergreen upland, and mixed upland classes to represent upland forests. Because the Canadian Land Classification Cover Map does not distinguish peatlands from other open ecosystems and appears to underestimate wetland cover, we performed similar overlays with fire perimeter maps and peatland distributions from the Peatlands of Canada database [ Tarnocai et al , 2000]. Polygons within the Peatlands of Canada database are not spatially explicit, but provide information on the average percentage of bog, fen, and permafrost peatland across Canada within 1° × 1° polygons.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfires threaten mercury stocks in northern soils

Turetsky

Harden

Friedli

et al. 2006

Geophysical Research Letters

121

102

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With climate change rapidly affecting northern forests and wetlands, mercury reserves once protected in cold, wet soils are being exposed to burning, likely triggering large releases of mercury to the atmosphere. We quantify organic soil mercury stocks and burn areas across western, boreal Canada for use in fire emission models that explore controls of burn area, consumption severity, and fuel loading on atmospheric mercury emissions. Though renowned as hotspots for the accumulation of mercury and its transformation to the toxic methylmercury, boreal wetlands might soon transition to hotspots for atmospheric mercury emissions. Estimates of circumboreal mercury emissions from this study are 15‐fold greater than estimates that do not account for mercury stored in peat soils. Ongoing and projected increases in boreal wildfire activity due to climate change will increase atmospheric mercury emissions, contributing to the anthropogenic alteration of the global mercury cycle and exacerbating mercury toxicities for northern food chains.

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“…The categories "50-100 % wetland" and "25-50 % wetland", for example, occur only in North America and "wetland complex" occurs only in Southeast Asia. One consequence is that the global extent of "bogs, fens, and mires" in the GLWD, 0.8 Mm 2 , is smaller than the Canadian area of peatlands, 1.1 Mm 2 (Tarnocai et al, 2002), which is dominated by bogs and fens. The spatial overlap of the GLWD and the GLCC categories is rather small (Table 6).…”

Section: Carbon In Global Wetlandsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Global distribution of soil organic carbon – Part 1: Masses and frequency distributions of SOC stocks for the tropics, permafrost regions, wetlands, and the world

Köchy¹,

Roland

Freibauer³

2015

SOIL

351

247

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Abstract. The global soil organic carbon (SOC) mass is relevant for the carbon cycle budget and thus atmospheric carbon concentrations. We review current estimates of SOC stocks and mass (stock × area) in wetlands, permafrost and tropical regions and the world in the upper 1 m of soil. The Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) v.1.2 provides one of the most recent and coherent global data sets of SOC, giving a total mass of 2476 Pg when using the original values for bulk density. Adjusting the HWSD's bulk density (BD) of soil high in organic carbon results in a mass of 1230 Pg, and additionally setting the BD of Histosols to 0.1 g cm −3 (typical of peat soils), results in a mass of 1062 Pg. The uncertainty in BD of Histosols alone introduces a range of −56 to +180 Pg C into the estimate of global SOC mass in the top 1 m, larger than estimates of global soil respiration. We report the spatial distribution of SOC stocks per 0.5 arcminutes; the areal masses of SOC; and the quantiles of SOC stocks by continents, wetland types, and permafrost types. Depending on the definition of "wetland", wetland soils contain between 82 and 158 Pg SOC. With more detailed estimates for permafrost from the Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database (496 Pg SOC) and tropical peatland carbon incorporated, global soils contain 1325 Pg SOC in the upper 1 m, including 421 Pg in tropical soils, whereof 40 Pg occurs in tropical wetlands. Global SOC amounts to just under 3000 Pg when estimates for deeper soil layers are included. Variability in estimates is due to variation in definitions of soil units, differences in soil property databases, scarcity of information about soil carbon at depths > 1 m in peatlands, and variation in definitions of "peatland".

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Peatlands of Canada database

Cited by 37 publications

References 0 publications

Fossil organic matter characteristics in permafrost deposits of the northeast Siberian Arctic

Fossil organic matter characteristics in permafrost deposits of the northeast Siberian Arctic

Wildfires threaten mercury stocks in northern soils

Global distribution of soil organic carbon – Part 1: Masses and frequency distributions of SOC stocks for the tropics, permafrost regions, wetlands, and the world

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