Title: Large Carbon Losses From Burned Permafrost Peatlands During Post-Fire Succession
Citation: See supplemental information
Study Site: Northern Alberta
Purpose: Boreal peatlands across northwestern Canada with permafrost have accumulated vast amounts of carbon (C) over millennia despite regularly burning in natural wildfires. Ongoing climate change increases fire frequency and intensifies fire severity, possibly transforming the ecosystems of this vast region into long-term future C sources.
Abstract: Between 2019 and 2023 we used eddy covariance and surface closed chambers to monitor two permafrost peatlands in boreal western Canada that burned in 2019 and 2007.
Supplemental Information Summary: Additional Text, Figures (Figures S1, S2, and S3 in Supporting Information S1), and Tables (Tables S1, S2, and S3 in Supporting Information S1) are available in the Supporting Information S1. The EC data is available at the corresponding AmeriFlux sites: CA-LU1 (Olefeldt & Sonnentag, 2025a) and CA-LU2 (Olefeldt & Sonnentag, 2025b). All other data for this piece of research is publicly available and licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Schulze et al., 2024).
Research: Can-Peat, Northern Water Futures
Further Info: Schulze, C., Sonnentag, O., Emmerton, C.A., Harris, L., Alcock, H., Marouelli, K., Gosselin, G.H., Knox, S.H., Howard, R., Skeeter, J., Moore, P., Nesic, Z., & Olefeldt, D. (2025). Large Carbon Losses From Burned Permafrost Peatlands During Post-Fire Succession. Geophysical Research Letters, 52(19): https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL118344
Status: Complete
Keywords:
soil carbon,
carbon dioxide,
methane,
permafrost,
wildfire,
Geographical coordinates: North: 59.595, South: 59.441 East: −117.176 West: −117.286
Bounding Temporal Extent: Start Date: 2019-01-01, End
Date: 2023-12-31
