Brandon University to study Southeast peatland

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This article was published 08/08/2021 (1419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A team from Brandon University will research and implement techniques for restoring peatland with the help of a five-year, $250,000 grant awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Students, led by Dr. Peter Whittington, an associate professor of geography and environment, will be working on a 90-hectare patch of Sun Gro’s harvested peatland near Whitemouth to test out ways to restore the carbon-capturing field, thereby renewing its ability to grow peat moss.

Peatlands, a type of wetland abundant in Manitoba, grow peat moss, organic vegetation which grows out of fens and bogs and is extracted to use as a fertilizer and growing medium for gardens, lawns, and potted plants.

“The ironic part is that it’s being used to grow things, yet very little will grow back on the field if just left alone. So we need to apply our restoration techniques to get peatland vegetation to reestablish on these sites,” Whittington said.

While similar research has been done on the East Coast and in mild climates, Whittington said it’s the drier climate of Manitoba and much of Western Canada that poses a problem to peatland restoration.

In Canada, 14 percent of the country’s surface consists of wetlands, with 11 percent of that proportion being peatlands. Whittington suggests 33 percent of Manitoba is peatland by area.

Part of the work the team will be doing come September involves finding a way to restore the harvested land to a fen peatland system. Bogs can be restored by rain alone whereas fens need a stable groundwater source such as a stream or spring.

Whittington said fens have a more complicated hydrology therefore the need to focus on that particular ecosystem.

“The project is trying to figure out how to create a favorable water balance,” he said. “So basically, trying to trap the precipitation and snow on-site and then limiting losses.”

He added once vegetation is established, it’s self-sustaining.

Once Whittington and his team find the best restoration strategy for the peatland, they will share their knowledge with companies across the country to implement themselves.

In recent years, peat moss harvesting has become controversial among climate activists as harvesting the light, spongy material releases carbon dioxide. The three percent of peatland that covers the Earth’s surface stores more carbon than all of the world’s forests combined.

Whittington said the goal of their research is to benefit both companies and residents across the nation to restore peatlands into their usual, carbon-capturing land, an effort to fight climate change.

“We’re going to try to reduce Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions while turning them back into carbon accumulating ecosystems, then that’s the sort of benefit to Canadians, in addition to the habitat for critters and birds.”

The team is expected to begin their research in September.