title: Mitigating wildfire carbon loss in managed northern peatlands through restoration.
abstract: Northern peatlands can emit large amounts of carbon and harmful smoke pollution during a wildfire. Of particular concern are drained and mined peatlands, where management practices destabilize an array of ecohydrological feedbacks, moss traits and peat properties that moderate water and carbon losses in natural peatlands. Our results demonstrate that drained and mined peatlands in Canada and northern Europe can experience catastrophic deep burns (>200 t C ha(-1) emitted) under current weather conditions. Furthermore, climate change will cause greater water losses in these peatlands and subject even deeper peat layers to wildfire combustion. However, the rewetting of drained peatlands and the restoration of mined peatlands can effectively lower the risk of these deep burns, especially if a new peat moss layer successfully establishes and raises peat moisture content. We argue that restoration efforts are a necessary measure to mitigate the risk of carbon loss in managed peatlands under climate change.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 7044, 75007 Uppsala, Sweden.|School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
authors.forename: Gustaf
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Granath
authors.affiliation: School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
authors.forename: Maxwell C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lukenbach
authors.affiliation: School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Waddington