Vulnerability of North American Boreal Peatlands to Interactions between Climate, Hydrology, and Wildland Fires

Laura Louise Bourgeau-Chavez, Michigan Tech Research Institute, laura.chavez@mtu.edu (Presenter)
Eric S. Kasischke, University of Maryland, ekasisch@umd.edu
Merritt R. Turetsky, Michigan State University, mrt@uoguelph.ca
Brian Benscoter, Florida Atlantic University, brian.benscoter@fau.edu
Elizabeth Banda, Michigan Tech Research Institute, ecbanda@mtu.edu
Erik Boren, Michigan Tech Research Institute, ejboren@mtu.edu
Liza Jenkins, Michigan Tech Research Institute, lliverse@mtu.edu
Naomi Hamermesh, nkhamerm@mtu.edu, nkhamerm@mtu.edu

Boreal peatlands store tremendous reservoirs of soil carbon that are likely to become increasingly vulnerable to fire as climate change lowers water tables and exposes C-rich peat to burning. Increasing fire activity in peatlands could cause these ecosystems to become net sources of C to the atmosphere, which is likely to have large influences on atmospheric carbon concentrations through positive feedbacks that enhance climate warming. North American boreal peatland sites of Alaska, Alberta Canada, and the southern limit of the boreal ecosregion (Michigan’s upper peninsula) are the focus of an ongoing project to better understand the fire weather, hydrology, and climatic controls on boreal peatland fires in order to better quantify the area and carbon emissions from peatland wildfire. Remote sensing work has been focused on developing capability to 1) map and classify peatlands in each study region, 2) characterize seasonal and inter-annual variations in the moisture content of surface peat (fuel) layers, 3) map the extent and seasonal timing of fires in peatlands, and 4) discriminate different levels of fuel consumption severity in peat fires. Field work has been coordinated with that of Canadian scientists to collect vegetation and hydrology data to validate peatland distribution maps within Alberta, to collect water table depths, and peat moisture content data to aid in algorithm development for SAR organic soil moisture retrieval, and to characterize variations in depth of burning and carbon consumption during peatland fires to use in fire emissions modeling. The proposed research project will reduce uncertainties of the role of northern high latitude ecosystems in the global carbon cycle and will improve carbon emission estimates from boreal fires.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Poster Session 1-B   (Tue 4:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Vulnerability of North American Boreal Peatlands to Interactions between Climate, Hydrology, and Wildland Fires

Poster Location ID: 21