Arctic Council News - Peatlands play a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate. What happens when intensifying wildland fires burn through peatlands, accelerating permafrost thaw and damaging these vital ecosystems?
Peatlands are profoundly important ecosystems that play a crucial role in regulating Earth’s climate. They’re a storage system for carbon, contribute to the water cycle, serve as a habitat that supports biodiversity and are important for people who depend on them.
What happens when intensifying wildland fires burn through peatlands, accelerating permafrost thaw and damaging these vital ecosystems? Could peatlands have a natural way to push back against the effects of increasing wildfires?
Dan Thompson works as a forest fire research scientist for the Canadian Forest Service and is an expert for the Arctic Council’s Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna Working Group (CAFF) contributing to the ArcticFIRE project. We’re speaking with Dan bright and early, before he dives into his work providing support amidst another intense wildfire season in Canada.
“We’re at a national preparedness level five out of five,” said Dan Thompson. “We have a bunch of fires in Northwest Canada, many of which are in the permafrost zone. So, this isn’t just an abstract risk, it’s very much real and has major circumpolar impacts that are particularly relevant this year, as it seems to be almost every year now.”
Despite the busy fire season, Dan answers our questions about how fires impact peatlands and permafrost before he dives back into his work modeling fire growth for this year’s fires.
Can you describe what peatlands are?
Peatlands are a type of wetland where the soils consist of organic matter that don’t completely decompose, which forms layers of peat. In Scandinavia, you tend to see more open peatland systems. These open peatlands tend to contain soggy mosses and leafy broadleaf shrubs that are less flammable. In North America we have open peatlands too, but we also have a lot of naturally forested peatlands. Spruce trees are common in Canadian peatlands, which are extremely flammable and can carry intense crown fires where the entire tree is torched up in flames in a dramatic fashion. Over half of Canada’s peatland systems live within the boreal forest, and the combination of trees and peat coexisting turns into a fairly flammable ecosystem.
Why are peatlands important ecosystems?
When they’re not burning, peatlands provide extensive ecosystem services. Peatlands have been storing carbon from the atmosphere over many millennia. Very little carbon is actually stored in trees, it’s mostly underground, invisible in the peat layers. So, these boreal peatlands are really important in the global scale of carbon sequestration.
In terms of their cultural significance, peatlands are a cornerstone of a variety of traditional food sources. Many berries grow in peatlands, and they also serve as a habitat for mammals such as caribou that are important for local food security. Peatlands can also serve as travel corridors particularly in winter.
Peatlands are an important habitat for some of Canada’s protected and endangered species such as the boreal woodland caribou. The older, semi-forested peatlands – many of which contain permafrost – are an ideal habitat for these caribou in terms of foraging and also protection from predation.
Peatlands are also really important in the water cycle. They store water from snowmelt for example, and slowly release it during the summer dry periods. Often peatlands are the origin point of many smaller streams in the boreal forest, so they are an important source of water for smaller fisheries habitats. They also serve as a moderator of the hydraulic cycle. Keeping them intact is important.
Read more: https://arctic-council.org/news/impacts-of-wildfires-on-permafrost-and-peatlands/