Geotop Seminar Series: Dr. Tiina Kolari
Dr. Tiina Kolari
聽Postdoctoral researcher, Geotop-UQAM
Tuesday, September 17, 2024聽
12:30辫尘听
Local PK-7605, 7e 茅tage, 201 ave. du Pr茅sident-Kennedy
窜辞辞尘:听
Recent and potential future trends in vegetation changes in middle boreal peatlands: insights from Finland
R茅sum茅 / abstract:
Ongoing climate change threatens the diversity and carbon sink capacity of northern mires (i.e., intact peatlands). It is commonly expected that warming will result in degradation by drying and, consequently, carbon losses, but some studies have projected increasing productivity and carbon accumulation in northern mires. Carbon accumulation is ultimately determined by the balance between plant productivity and decomposition, which depends on vegetation and hydrology. Thus, it is critical to recognize ongoing vegetation trends and hydrological changes before the question of the fate of northern peatlands as future carbon sinks can be fully solved. My PhD. work focused on recent (1940鈥損resent) vegetation trends in boreal aapa mires in a changing climate. I used vegetation resurveys and a spatial chronosequence approach, both supported by spatial analyses of historical and new aerial photographs and Landsat satellite images. In this presentation, I will show how species richness, plant community structure, spatial patterns of plant functional groups, and hydrology have changed since the 1940s and discuss the potential causes and implications. Most importantly, this presentation highlights the ongoing transitions from fen to bog vegetation dominated by Sphagnum mosses, the most important genus for storing carbon as peat.