##  [The Essential Carbon Service Provided by Northern Peatlands](/resource/essential-carbon-service-provided-northern-peatlands) 

Organization

[University of Alberta (UofA)](/organization/university-alberta-uofa)

[Concordia University](/organization/concordia-university)

[University of Waterloo](/organization/university-waterloo)

[University of Toronto (UofT)](/organization/university-toronto-uoft)

[Université du Québec à Montréal](/organization/universite-du-quebec-montreal)

[Mount Royal University](/organization/mount-royal-university)

[McGill University](/organization/mcgill-university)

[Wildlife Conservation Society Canada](/organization/wildlife-conservation-society-canada)

[McMaster University](/organization/mcmaster-university)

[Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)](/organization/natural-resources-canada-nrcan)

[Government of Ontario (GoO)](/organization/government-ontario-goo)

 

 

Resource Type

[Peer reviewed article](/taxonomy/term/37)

 

 

Author(s)

Lorna Harris

Karen Richardson

Kelly Bona

Scott Davidson

Sarah Finkelstein

Michelle Garneau

Jim McLaughlin

Felix Nwaishi

David Olefeldt

Maara Packalen

Nigel Roulet

Meg Southee

Maria Strack

Kara Webster

Sophie Wilkinson

Justina Ray

 

 

Original Authors

Lorna Harris

Karen Richardson

Kelly Bona

Scott Davidson

Sarah Finkelstein

Michelle Garneau

Jim McLaughlin

Felix Nwaishi

David Olefeldt

Maara Packalen

Nigel Roulet

Meg Southee

Maria Strack

Kara Webster

Sophie Wilkinson

Justina Ray

 

 

Contacts

[Lorna Harris](/contact/lorna-harris)

 

 

Resource Date:

November

2021

 

 

Northern peatlands have cooled the global climate by accumulating large quantities of soil carbon (C) over thousands of years. Maintaining the C sink function of these peatlands and their immense long-term soil C stores is critical for achieving net-zero global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2050 to mitigate climate warming. One-quarter of the world’s northern peatlands are in Canada, with these mostly intact ecosystems providing a global C service that is increasingly recognized as a critical part of nature-based solutions to combat climate change. However, land-use change and other disturbances threaten these globally important stores of “irrecoverable C” (that is, soil C lost to disturbance that will take centuries to recover). Inadequate policy safeguards to avoid conversion and degradation, and the limited quantification and reporting of peatland greenhouse-gas emissions and removals, increase the vulnerability of these peatlands. Targeted policies from local to global scales will be needed for improved decision making and incentivizing long-term C management of northern peatlands.