Future Roles of Irish Peatlands: Biodiversity, Carbon Storage and Energy
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Future Roles of Irish Peatlands: Biodiversity, Carbon Storage and Energy
- 1. Future Roles of Peatlands Florence Renou-Wilson, David Wilson Christoph Müller University College Dublin
- 6. Raised bog Rewetted cutaway bog Fen Montane blanket bog Lowland blanket bog Examples of Irish peatlands
- 18. Peatlands Climate sequester CO 2 release CH 4 precipitation temperature
- 20. Land use category Area Annual C gas flux (ha) (tonnes C yr -1 ) Near-intact peatland 227,784 +57,402 Agriculture 345,606 nd Forestry 293,000 nd Cutover peatland 468,629 -808,385 Industrial peat extraction 100,000 -275,800 Cutaway peatland Forestry 16,450 +20,562 Regenerated 4,250 -22,313 Alkaline wetland 4,250 -18,402 Acid wetland 6,500 nd Related activities Domestic combustion - -323,025 Industrial combustion - -752,268 Horticulture - -517,500 ______________________________________________________________________ Total 1,466,469 -2,639,729 ____________________________________________________________ Area and estimated annual C gas flux from Irish peatlands. (Negative values indicate a net loss of C).
- 22. Threats Peat extraction Climate change Carbon store
- 23. Threats Peat extraction Climate change Carbon store Action Required Cessation of extraction Protection Conservation Restoration
- 28. Thank you
Editor's Notes
- Thank you very much for the invitation I would like to mention Florence and David, they are the scientist who work on two major EPA related to peatland biodiversity and peatland restoration David is in the audience and will help to answer tricky questions.
- First of all I would like to give an overview and mention a few definitions I will then present som historical uses of peat before I will go on to describe future roles of peat
- Organic Soil or histosols
- Peatlands are widely distributed with the majority located in the northern hemisphere and in the tropics Large areas drained for agriculture, forestry and peat extraction. exposed to the air decomposition greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. In tropical regions more rapidly than in colder regions In the latter (Russia, Canada) most peat is found. Carbon stocks in peat soils are twice the C stock in global forest biomass Conservative estimate: CO2 emissions from drained peatsoils = 2 Gt per year (i.e. 6% of all global anthropogenic CO2 emissions), a quarter (¼ )is emitted by developed countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions are currently ignored as they do not need to be accounted for There are no incentives for countries to save or restore these carbon rich areas. ▪ Since 1990, worldwide peatland emissions have increased by more than 20%. ▪ The EU is the World’s second largest emitter with 174 million ton CO2, after Indonesia (500 million ton) and before Russia (160 million ton). ▪ In Sub-Sahara Africa (South Africa excluded) peat emissions equal 25% of all fossil fuel emissions in this region. ▪ In Southeast Asia peat emissions equal 70% of all fossil fuel emissions in this region.
- Irish peatlands cover around 20% of the land blanket bogs (found mainly the west of the country and in the mountains) raised bogs in the Midlands smaller areas of fens cutaway peatlands. They differ considerably from each in terms of vegetation composition and in hydrology.
- Some examples
- Historically, Peatlands have been utilised for their fuel resource, originally by hand cutting of the peat.
- In recent years, small scale mechanisation methods have superseded the traditional methods to a large extent “ sausage machine” “ Thursday, 10 July 2008 Minister confirms sausage machines banned from designated bogs – Naughten”
- Industrial extraction of the peat has created large areas of so called “ brown desert”
- Historially, peatlands have also been widely used and modified for agricultural uses such as grazing and grassland
- And over the last 50 years or so, a significant area of peatlands have been utilised for forestry. Mainly on blanket bogs.
- So what is the current status of Irish peatlands?
- If we are clear as to what peatlands have been used for in the past What roles do we then foresee for Irish peatlands in the future? Firstly, biodiversity
- The Bogland project is first mentioned here so it should be stated that it was an EPA project which was initiated in 2006 and was completed last year Final report is currently under review.
- The drivers of biodiversity change in peatlands are linked to past, present and future threats. The drivers of biodiversity change are projected to either remain constant or increase in the near future represents a major challenge for the protection of peatlands.
- There is substantial scope for greater protection of more peatland sites in order to protect more biodiversity Conservation programmes for biodiversity need to include all peatland types in a representative man ner Networks should represent geographical distribution of peatland types in order to offset climate change threats.
- There is a fundamentally close relationship between peatlands and the global climate Until recently, little was known about peatlands, their carbon stocks and their emissions. Reports by Wetlands International and Greifswald University in the past years have informed countries on the magnitude of emissions from peatsoils and on how to measure these emissions. In November 2009 the first ever worldwide overview of peatland emissions and peat stocks per country was presented. These figures turned the official emission figures of many countries upside down.
- Peatlands are strongly influenced by climate found in areas where precipitation >losses through evaporation and transpiration. Peatlands help to maintain and regulate the global climate by sequestering carbon dioxide and releasing methane. Future changes in climate are likely to further impact on peatlands which will then impact on C exchange dynamics and possibly drive changes in climate etc.....
- Irish peatlands contain around 1.5 billion tonnes C BOGLAND findings: less than 20% of Irish peatlands are in a near intact condition. The majority have undergone some land use change altered their capacity to sequester and store Carbon impinge upon their future role as a climate change buffer.
- BOGLAND: annual C losses from Irish peatlands are estimated to be in the region of 2.6 Million tonnes. Much of this results from extraction of peat for fuel, either through combustion of the peat or through the impact on the peatland itself. Around 57 000 tonnes of C are sequestered by near intact peatlands every year as the area of intact peatlands continue to get smaller each year this modest figure is likely to get smaller Unless there is some effort to protect and conserve these peatlands and to begin to rehabilitate and restore some of the peatlands. Large information gaps still exist: - potential C sink / source function of agricultural peat soils and forestry on peatlands.
- Uncertainty: future impact of climate change on on the carbon store (to date only one long term GHG monitoring site on peatlands (Co. Kerry – University College Cork). Urgently more monitoring programmes are needed where GHG are monitored on different peatlands Climate change may increase C sequestration (precipitation) or decrease (drought) Modelling study TCD (Mike Jones) predicted a 42% decrease of peatland by 2050 (including the Carbon contained within them).
- The principal threats to the C store are peat extraction (both industrial and domestic) and the climate change.
- To ensure that the C store is maintained and increased in the future some radical actions are required. If we are serious about the importance of the C store then one of the first actions must entail a curtailing / cessation of peat extraction , primarily on those few remaining peatland areas that are near intact . This needs to be coupled with actions to protect and conserve the remaining near-intact peatlands and to seek to restore others that have been severely damaged. Well planned restoration efforts can make a difference as some of the preliminary results from the Carbon Restore project (EPA) (return of the C sink function on a restored industrial cutaway less than 10 years after restoration). Simple to remember: PCR – Protection Conservation Restoration Important IPPC decision: towards wetland restoration 10-Jun-2010 (Bonn, germany) IPCC will explore further guidance for monitoring GHG emissions from wetlands. Crucial step towards a decision by the UN Climate Summit in December in Mexico to allow countries to reduce emissions through rewetting drained wetlands. The decision shows: is broad acknowledgement among Parties under the Convention that emissions from drained wetlands are significant and that rewetting peatlands is an important contribution to decreasing GHG emissions ( avoid climate change). Susanne Tol, Wetland International: “ Once emissions and removals from wetlands can be accounted for under the Kyoto Protocol the entire finance stream for wetland management will change. Rewetting these important ecosystems and implementing sustainable use like paludiculture (wet agriculture) will become financially attractive”, follows the negotiations on behalf of Wetlands International.
- Peat is amongst the most carbon intensive of fuels in terms of emissions. Peat-fired power stations have been allocated allowances for free until 2012 on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), Scheme aims to provide utilities with a continuous price incentive to move away from energies with high carbon emissions.
- Forested peatlands and agriculture account for around 40 % of the total peatland area More research is required to ensure that Irish peatlands are able to fulfil the important future roles