Quantifying Peatland Ecohydrological Resilience to Drought

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环境，增加植被压力和更大的野火发生率。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，在气候变化下，泥炭地将对干旱产生强烈而持久的积极反馈。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，以确定其对气候变化介导的干旱的适应能力。因此，本研究的目的是量化泥炭地对干旱的生态水文恢复能力。

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. While field evidence suggests that peatlands are generally resilient ecosystems, some modelling studies suggest peatlands will represent a strong and persistent positive feedback to drying under climate change. 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 drought. As such, the aim of this research is to quantify peatland ecohydrological resilience to drought. Moss ecophysiology lab experiments will be complemented with a field based process quantification of peat resilience in response to varying severity of drought. A novel space for time approach will be used in this research by examining peat-filled wetlands ranging in depth (and successional state) from 0.1m to >2m. A mathematical model will be parameterized using the lab and field experiments used to simulate the effects of drought on peatland ecohydrology to assess peat depth thresholds to drought. This research will train and develop 12 highly qualified personnel including 2 MSc and 2 PhD students. The research will provide new information, enhanced models, guidelines, and recommendations that will help government and industry better understand the long-term ecological and hydrological ramifications of natural resource management decisions and responses to climate change of peatlands. The relationship between drought and climate change could have significant implications for forestry activities, wildfire community protection and carbon sequestration.