Recent and potential future trends in vegetation changes in middle boreal peatlands

Name: Recent and potential future trends in vegetation changes in middle boreal peatlands
Start: 2024-09-24T12:30:00-04:00
End: 2024-09-24T13:30:00-04:00
Location: UQAM Pavillon Président-Kennedy (PK)

Schedule

Tue Sep 24 2024 at 12:30 pm to 01:30 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

UQAM Pavillon Président-Kennedy (PK) | Montreal, QC

Séminaire du Geotop / Geotop seminar
Événement hybride / Hybrid event:
En personne/In person:
LOCAL/ROOM 7605
201 ave. du Président-Kennedy, Montréal, QC
Zoom ID: 832 1632 7466
Passcode: isotope
"Recent and potential future trends in vegetation changes in middle boreal peatlands: insights from Finland"
Dre Tiina Kolari, postdoctoral researcher, Geotop-UQAM
Ongoing climate change threatens the diversity and carbon sink capacity of northern mires (i.e., intact peatlands). It is commonly expected that warming will result in degradation by drying and, consequently, carbon losses, but some studies have projected increasing productivity and carbon accumulation in northern mires. Carbon accumulation is ultimately determined by the balance between plant productivity and decomposition, which depends on vegetation and hydrology. Thus, it is critical to recognize ongoing vegetation trends and hydrological changes before the question of the fate of northern peatlands as future carbon sinks can be fully solved. My PhD. work focused on recent (1940–present) vegetation trends in boreal aapa mires in a changing climate. I used vegetation resurveys and a spatial chronosequence approach, both supported by spatial analyses of historical and new aerial photographs and Landsat satellite images. In this presentation, I will show how species richness, plant community structure, spatial patterns of plant functional groups, and hydrology have changed since the 1940s and discuss the potential causes and implications. Most importantly, this presentation highlights the ongoing transitions from fen to bog vegetation dominated by Sphagnum mosses, the most important genus for storing carbon as peat.