Name
H02b - Cold Region Wetlands and Peatlands in a Changing Climate Science and Management
Date & Time
Tuesday, May 9, 2023, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Description

Global climate warming disproportionately affects cold regions, including northern wetlands and peatlands. These ecosystems are coping with more frequent winter freezing and thawing events, more intense flooding, longer dry periods, changing groundwater-surface water interactions, and altered flow regimes. These changes in hydroclimatic drivers impact landscape hydrological feedbacks, carbon dynamics, biogeochemistry, and greenhouse gas (CO2, CH4, and N2O) emissions to the atmosphere. Therefore, efforts to conserve, restore and manage cold regions’ wetland and peatland ecosystems could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enhancing the preservation and storage of carbon and nitrogen in soils and sediments. Further research is needed to advance our understanding of how wetlands and peatlands in cold regions respond to shifts in environmental conditions accompanying warmer climate and how this translates in changes in the mobility and biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nutrients, metals, and pollutants in these ecosystems. This session will focus on interdisciplinary research on hydrological feedbacks, biogeochemical soil processes, microbial-plant interactions, elemental cycling, greenhouse gas dynamics, and water quality in wetland and peatland ecosystems of cold regions. We invite presentations that provide new insights into soil microbial activity, hydrogeochemical processes, and biogeochemical connectivity in peatlands and wetlands, including those in permafrost regions, and changes in carbon and nutrient cycling due to climate warming, land use changes and other human disturbances. Field, laboratory, and modeling studies are all welcome. In addition, studies with specific recommendations for the adaptive management, and the restoration of resilient peatland and wetland ecosystems are also encouraged.

Oral talks:

1:30 - 1:45: Greenhouse gas fluxes from restored and natural wetlands across Canada
Presenter(s): Sara Knox, Assistant Professor, The University of British Columbia, June Skeeter, Department of Geography, UBC; Darian Ng, Department of Geography, UBC, Tzu-Yi Lu, Department of Geography, UBC; Katrina Poppe, Department of Geography, UBC; Sarah Russell, Department of Geography, UBC, Pascal Badiou, Ducks Unlimited Canada

1:45 - 2:00: Exploring the possible effects of future climate change on peatlands and their vegetation communities in Eeyou Istchee James-Bay, Québec
Presenter(s): Marc-Frédéric Indorf, , Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Yves Bergeron - Institut de Recherche sur les Forêts (IRF) — Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT); Département des sciences biologiques — Université du Québec à Montréal, Nicole J. Fenton - Institut de Recherche sur les Forêts (IRF) — Univ

2:00 - 2:15: Hydrology of natural and constructed ecotones surrounding peatlands in southeastern Manitoba
Presenter(s): Frank Yamoah, Geologist, Barr Engineering and Envirionmental Science Canada, Dr. Pete Whittington, Brandon University

2:15 - 2:30: Mercury methylation and demethylation in impacted wetland soils: effects of temperature
Presenter(s): Sayuri Sagisaka, Student, CGU, Prof. Carl P. Mitchell

2:30 - 2:45:Assessing the implications of permafrost thaw on microbial mercury methylation in the vast peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowlands
Presenter(s): Adam Kirkwood, PhD Candidate, Carleton University, Adam Kirkwood - PhD Candidate, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON., Pascale Roy-Léveillée - Associate professor and Research Chair, Department of Geography, Universite Laval, QC, Maara Packalen - Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resour

2:45 - 3:00: Fluxes of Dissolved Selenium Respond to Seasonal Changes in Redox Conditions in Subarctic Pond
Presenter(s): Audrey Laberge-Carignan, , Université Laval, Audrey Laberge-Carignan1, 2, 3, , Martin Pilote3, 4, Dominic Larivière1 , Raoul-Marie Couture1, 2, 3, 1. Department of Chemistry, Université Laval, Québec, Canada, 2. Takuvik International Research Laboratory, Université Laval (Canada) & CNRS (France), Qué

Session Type
Keynote