Ecohydrology and resilience of peatland ecosystems

泥炭地占加拿大陆地面积的17%，主要位于北方和亚北极生态带。泥炭地生态系统是全球气候调节器和区域重要的水资源，包含全球土壤碳库的三分之一，占全球地表淡水的10%。然而，气候变化预计将导致更干燥的条件，增加植被压力和更大的野火发生率[Flannigan等人，2005]。虽然实地证据表明，泥炭地通常是有弹性的生态系统，但一些模拟研究表明，泥炭地将对气候变化产生强烈而持久的积极反馈。本研究的目的是量化泥炭地生态水文恢复能力。因此，迫切需要开发和采用一种新的方法来量化泥炭地的生态水文过程，以确定泥炭地对气候变化介导的干扰的恢复能力。泥炭地水文影响（PHI）模型将从苔藓生态生理学实验室实验和基于现场的泥炭弹性过程量化中发展而来，以应对不同严重程度的干旱和野火。该模型将用于模拟气候变化对泥炭地生态水文和碳生物地球化学的影响。

Peatlands cover ~17% of Canada's land surface and are located primarily in the boreal and subarctic ecozones. Peatland ecosystems represent a global climate regulator and a regionally important water resource, containing one-third of the global soil carbon pool and accounting for 10% of the global surface fresh water. However, climate change is expected to lead to drier conditions, increased vegetation stress and a greater incidence of wildfire [Flannigan et al. 2005]. While field evidence suggests that peatlands are generally resilient ecosystems, some modelling studies suggest peatlands will represent a strong and persistent positive feedback to climate change. The aim of this research is to quantify peatland ecohydrological resilience. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop and adopt a new approach to quantify ecohydrological processes in peatlands to determine their resilience to climate change mediated disturbance. The Peatland Hydrological Impacts (PHI) model will be developed from moss ecophysiology lab experiments and field based process quantification of peat resilience in response to varying severity of drought and wildfires. The model will be used to simulate the effects of climate change on peatland ecohydrology and carbon biogeochemistry.