Northern peatland ecosystem responses to climate change

北部泥炭地生态系统对气候变化的响应

• 批准号: 479026-2015
• 负责人: Branfireun, Brian
• 金额: $ 11.81万
• 依托单位: University of Western Ontario
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Strategic Projects - Group
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=641854
• 关键词: Northern; peatland; ecosystem; responses; climate

Northern peatlands are one of the world's most important stores of carbon, and have contributed to significant 'climate cooling' over the Holocene. It is now apparent that despite millennia of carbon accumulation, these stores are far from invulnerable to climate change. Important recent experimental data has shown that in some peatland types, increases in temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide can result in sudden changes in plant community composition, water chemistry and biodiversity. These findings facilitated an NSERC Research Tools and Instruments grant to install a globally-unique field experiment to experimentally assess the interactive effects of elevated carbon dioxide and temperature (using direct ground heating) of two grossly understudied, yet ubiquitous fen peatland types in boreal Ontario. Taking advantage of this unique infrastructure, this Strategic Partnership Grant assembles a genes-to-ecosystems team of researchers to address five key objectives that cut across supporting, provisioning, cultural and regulating ecosystem services, all underpinned by a fundamental understanding of peatland biodiversity. We will use our experimental systems to understand the impacts of climate change on: plant, animal and microbial communities and impacts on ecosystem function; changes in belowground carbon chemistry and methane dynamics; hydrological processes that regulate the soil-plant-atmosphere exchanges; and changes in biogeochemical processes that affect mercury transformation and release. These data will be incorporated into current state-of-the-art models to both evaluate our experimental findings, and to test the ability of the models to handle dynamic disequilibria. Our research is directly aligned with the science and policy priorities of our established supporting organizations, the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change. This coupling ensures that the findings of this unique experiment will translate directly from basic science to policy.

北方泥炭地是世界上最重要的碳储存地之一，并在全新世期间促成了显著的“气候变冷”。现在很明显，尽管有数千年的碳积累，这些储存远不是不受气候变化的影响。最近的重要实验数据表明，在某些泥炭地类型中，温度和大气二氧化碳的增加可能导致植物群落组成、水化学和生物多样性的突然变化。这些研究结果促进了NSERC研究工具和仪器赠款安装一个全球独特的现场实验，以实验评估两个严重不足，但无处不在的沼泽泥炭地类型在北方安大略的二氧化碳和温度升高（使用直接地面加热）的相互作用。利用这一独特的基础设施，这项战略伙伴关系赠款组建了一个基因到生态系统的研究人员团队，以解决跨越支持，供应，文化和调节生态系统服务的五个关键目标，所有这些都以泥炭地生物多样性的基本理解为基础。我们将使用我们的实验系统来了解气候变化对植物，动物和微生物群落的影响以及对生态系统功能的影响;地下碳化学和甲烷动力学的变化;调节土壤-植物-大气交换的水文过程;以及影响汞转化和释放的生物地球化学过程的变化。这些数据将被纳入当前最先进的模型，以评估我们的实验结果，并测试模型处理动态不平衡的能力。我们的研究是直接与我们建立的支持组织，自然资源和林业的安大略部的科学和政策的优先事项，以及环境和气候变化的安大略部对齐。这种结合确保了这一独特实验的结果将直接从基础科学转化为政策。