Carbon-Rich Peat Is Disappearing. But Is It Also Growing?

Scientists are only beginning to investigate the contradiction, which is that as the Arctic warms, more peat dries out and ignites, but more vegetation grows, which could eventually form new peatland.

The key variable is water, and whether or not the rest of the Arctic will stay wet enough for long enough to allow the development of peat. Peat can disappear in an instant if it catches fire because it takes centuries to form.

Wildlife is a more surprising variable. Birds and reindeer leave their droppings in the vegetation, which encourages the growth of plants. Will more animal species wander north to provide a critical source offertilizer? If reindeer populations grow big enough, will they eat a lot of vegetation to discourage the formation of peat? Scientists can yet say that.

They don't know how much new peatlands will offset the losses from the fires. He studies greening but wasn't involved in the new research. I don't know how much carbon could be removed from the atmosphere in this way and whether it would have a negative effect on global warming.

The destruction of established peatlands is much more widespread than the accumulating of organic matter in a small number of theArctic ecosystems. Peatland is being disturbed and destroyed at an unprecedented rate, and only if it can stay wet.

It is a bad move to bet on new peat to sequester the extra carbon that humanity is pumping into the atmosphere as there is no guarantee that the balance between recent growth and ongoing loss will tip in our favor. Natural carbon removal won't save us from ourselves if we don't crash emissions.