How does land management influence FIre REsilience and carbon fate in BLANKET bogs? (FIRE BLANKET)

土地管理如何影响 BLANKET 沼泽的防火能力和碳命运？

• 批准号: NE/T00651X/2
• 负责人: Amy Pickard
• 金额: $ 0.56万
• 依托单位: UK CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY & HYDROLOGY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FT00651X%2F2
• 关键词: How; does; land; management; influence

In good condition, peatlands are the most efficient soil carbon store, regulate freshwater and climate, and maintain biodiversity. However, management interventions can jeopardise the delivery of all these services by destabilising the vast C store that peat has locked away over thousands of years. In the UK, up to 80% of UK peatlands are damaged and release carbon back to the atmosphere as greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane, which amplify climate change in the same way that fossil fuels do. Furthermore, destabilisation of the peat carbon store can alter the flow and the quality of water within the peatlands and into streams, rivers and all the way to the sea. This can affect drinking water supplies as well as freshwater and marine habitats and wildlife. Importantly, disturbed peatlands may also become more vulnerable to stress, including severe drought and wildfires - events which are predicted to increase with future climate change.Understanding how land-use interacts with climate extremes in peatlands is essential to inform which management practices are likely to best maintain and enhance peatland carbon storage. However, this is notoriously challenging to achieve. Indeed, climate extremes are rare and ephemeral by nature, and therefore can only be opportunistically studied. In addition, their effects can only be truly assessed where high-quality ground-based observations pre-date a given extreme event, and where data from both impacted and similar control areas can be compared afterwards. These conditions rarely come together, but when they do, they provide unique opportunities. Following a dry and warm spring, in mid-May 2019, a large wildfire burnt approximately >60 km2 within the Flow Country peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland, North Scotland. Covering 4000km2, the Flow Country is a site of global significance currently under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Nevertheless, it has also been substantially modified in places by drainage and notably forestry (with non-native conifer trees), making those areas particularly vulnerable to catastrophic deep burning. Unlike other wildfires in the UK, the May 2019 Flow Country fire covers an exceptionally large area that includes peatlands in a range of conditions: drained, drained and afforested, under restoration (through forestry removal and drain blocking) and near-natural. These areas are also actively used for scientific research, with a wide range of prior data and a mature collaborative network of researchers and land managers currently in place. The May Flow Country fire has therefore created an unprecedented and urgent opportunity to quantify the interacting effects of fire, drought and past human interventions on peatland carbon storage and water quality.We want to seize this opportunity. First, we want to compare burn severity, carbon losses during the fire, and initial recovery across the different peatland management types. To do that, we will combine ground measurements, UAV images and a newly validated method that uses satellite radar data to measure peat surface motion. This method works because the peat surface motion is a direct response to water storage in the peat, and the type of plants on the peat surface. These in turn are the main indicators of peat condition. By comparing data in the periods prior to and after the wildfire, we can examine the ability of peatland to recover from such an event. Secondly, we will measure aqueous and gaseous carbon emissions across a range of burnt and unburnt land-uses and we will quantify changes in the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter, in order to understand how changes attributed to the fire alter the fate of peatland C. Finally, we will use our new knowledge and consult with land managers to compare how different management strategies of forestry and forest-to-bog restoration influence fire risk and damage in order to make recommendations for management and policy.

状况良好，泥炭地是最有效的土壤碳储存，调节淡水和气候，并维持生物多样性。但是，管理干预措施可能会通过破坏泥炭已锁定数千年的大量C商店来危害所有这些服务的交付。在英国，当二氧化碳和甲烷等温室气体以与化石燃料相同的方式扩大气候变化，英国多达80％的英国泥炭地被损坏，并将碳释放回大气。此外，泥炭碳店的不稳定可以改变泥炭地内的流量和水质，进入溪流，河流以及一直到海的河流。这会影响饮用水供应以及淡水，海洋栖息地和野生动植物。重要的是，受到干扰的泥炭地也可能变得更容易受到压力的影响，包括严重的干旱和野火 - 预计随着未来的气候变化而增加的事件。理解土地利用与泥炭地极端的相互作用对于告知哪些管理实践可能最能维持和增强泥炭地碳的储存至关重要。但是，众所周知，这是具有挑战性的。实际上，极端气候是罕见的，而且短暂，因此只能进行机会主义研究。此外，只有在高质量的地面观测前预先一个给定的极端事件，以及之后可以比较受影响和类似控制区域的数据的情况下，才能真正评估它们的效果。这些条件很少聚在一起，但是当它们这样做时，它们会提供独特的机会。在2019年3月中旬的干燥和温暖的春天之后，在凯斯内斯和北苏格兰萨瑟兰的流动国家泥炭地内，大型野火燃烧了约60 km2。流动国家覆盖4000 km2，是目前正在考虑联合国教科文组织世界遗产地位的全球意义的地点。然而，它也通过排水和尤其是林业（有非本地针叶树）在某些地方进行了实质性的修改，使这些地区特别容易受到灾难性深度燃烧的影响。与英国的其他野火不同，2019年5月的流动国家大火覆盖了一个非常大的区域，其中包括泥炭地在各种条件下：排干，排水和污染，正在恢复（通过森林清除和排水障碍）和近乎自然的情况下。这些领域还可以主动用于科学研究，并具有广泛的先前数据，以及目前已经到位的研究人员和土地管理人员的成熟协作网络。因此，五月流域大火创造了一个前所未有的紧急机会，以量化火灾，干旱和过去对泥炭地碳储存和水质的互动影响。我们希望抓住这一机会。首先，我们要比较烧伤的严重程度，火灾期间的碳损失以及在不同的泥炭地管理类型中的初步恢复。为此，我们将结合地面测量值，无人机图像和新验证的方法，该方法使用卫星雷达数据来测量泥炭表面运动。该方法之所以起作用，是因为泥炭表面运动是对泥炭中储水的直接反应，以及泥炭表面的植物类型。反过来，这些是泥炭条件的主要指标。通过比较野火之前和之后的时期内的数据，我们可以检查泥炭地从这种事件中恢复的能力。 Secondly, we will measure aqueous and gaseous carbon emissions across a range of burnt and unburnt land-uses and we will quantify changes in the quantity and quality of dissolved organic matter, in order to understand how changes attributed to the fire alter the fate of peatland C. Finally, we will use our new knowledge and consult with land managers to compare how different management strategies of forestry and forest-to-bog restoration influence fire risk and damage in order to make recommendations for management and 政策。

项目成果

How does wildfire impact carbon delivery to peatland drainage networks?

野火如何影响泥炭地排水网络的碳输送？

• DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu21-16046
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Pickard A

Impact of land management on fire resilience and carbon fate in blanket bogs: The FireBlanket project

土地管理对毯状沼泽的防火能力和碳归宿的影响：FireBlanket 项目

• DOI: 10.5194/egusphere-egu21-9505
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Andersen R