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Holocene Carbon Dynamics in the Patterned Peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland, Canada: Reducing Landscape-Scale Uncertainty in a Changing Climate

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Holocene Carbon Dynamics in the Patterned Peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland, Canada: Reducing Landscape-Scale Uncertainty in a Changing Climate Holocene Carbon Dynamics in the Patterned Peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland, Canada: Reducing Landscape-Scale Uncertainty in a Changing Climate by Maara Susanna Packalen A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography University of Toronto © Copyright by Maara Susanna Packalen, 2015 Holocene Carbon Dynamics in the Patterned Peatlands of the Hudson Bay Lowland, Canada: Reducing Landscape- Scale Uncertainty in a Changing Climate Maara Susanna Packalen Doctor of Philosophy Department of Geography University of Toronto 2015 Abstract Northern peatlands have accumulated ~ 500 Pg of carbon (C) over millennia, and contributed to a net climate cooling. However, the fate of peatland C pools and related climate-system feedbacks remain uncertain under scenarios of a changing climate and enhanced anthropogenic pressure. Here, Holocene C dynamics in the Hudson Bay Lowland, Canada (HBL) are examined at the landscape scale with respect to glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), climate, and ecohydrology. Results confirm that the timing of peat initiation in the HBL is tightly coupled with GIA, while contemporary climate explains up to half of the spatial distribution of the total C mass. Temporal patterns in C accumulation rates (CARs) are related to peatland age, ecohydrology, and possibly paleoclimate, whereby CARs are greatest for younger, minerotrophic peatlands. Rapid and widespread peatland expansion in the HBL has given rise to a globally significant C pool, in excess of 30 Pg C and two-thirds of which is of late Holocene age. Yet, ii long-term decomposition of previously accrued peat has potentially resulted in some C losses, especially during the late Holocene when the landscape was occupied by an abundance of minerotrophic peatlands and climate was characterized by more precipitation and similar-to- colder temperatures than present. Model deconstruction of HBL C dynamics indicate that 85% of C losses occurred during the late Holocene, while spatio-temporal scaling of modern methane (CH4) emissions suggest a potential flux of 1 – 7 Pg CH4 to the late Holocene atmosphere, which provides evidence of a peatland contribution to the late Holocene CH4 rise recorded in ice cores. Although HBL peatlands may continue to function as a net C sink, conservative climate scenarios predict warmer and wetter conditions in the next century – beyond the HBL’s range of past climate variability, yet within the peatland climate domain – with implications for primary production and decomposition. Further investigation into controls on spatial-temporal C dynamics may reduce uncertainty concerning the HBL’s potential to remain a net C sink under future climate and resource management scenarios, and contribute to our understanding of global peatland C-climate dynamics. iii Acknowledgements Research Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my major supervisor Professor Sarah Finkelstein. You have been a tremendous mentor for me. I would like to thank you for guiding and encouraging my research, fostering idea development through countless discussions, and supporting unique opportunities for field work, collaboration, academic and professional enrichment, which greatly enhanced my graduate studies at the University of Toronto (U of T). I would also like to thank my committee members at the U of T, Professors Nathan Basiliko (now at Laurentian University), Jing Chen, and William Gough, and Dr. James McLaughlin at the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF). Each of you has contributed meaningful and unique perspectives at various stages of my doctoral research, and I am enormously grateful. Special thanks to Dr. McLaughlin for establishing a solid foundation to pursue peatland research in the Far North of Ontario, and specifically across the Hudson Bay Lowland. This logistically-challenging research would not have been possible, at the scale that it was conducted, without your tireless efforts to develop compelling research strategies and establish strong collaborations among government, academia, industry, and First Nation communities. Special thanks are also extended to the MNRF, for supporting my request for an educational leave of absence from my permanent position with the Forest Research and Monitoring Section, which afforded dedicated time to pursue doctoral studies. And finally, to my external appraiser, Professor Merritt Turetsky (University of Guelph) – my sincerest appreciation is extended to you for reviewing my dissertation and providing extremely thoughtful and meaningful feedback. Your research contributions inspired me early in my career and primed me to undertake this amazing doctoral research journey; and your ongoing professional contributions and enthusiasm for research continue to inspire me today. Thank you. iv Research funding and field support was provided by the MNRF’s Applied Research and Development Branch (now Science and Research Branch) and Far North Branch, under the auspices of projects CC-021 and FNIKM 028. Many thanks to MNRF field crews for peat coring and site surveys (2009 – 2011) and De Beers Canada for logistical support in the vicinity of the Victor Diamond Mine (2009 – 2012). Many thanks also to MNRF lab personnel for geochemical analyses. Additional support for field work and radiocarbon dating was provided by grants (327197-11 and 331284-11) from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) through the Climate Change and Multiple Stressor Research Program at Laurentian University. Many thanks for field and logistical support from the U of T (Department of Geography), Laurentian University (Living with Lakes Centre), Queen’s University (PEARL), Hearst Air Service, and Albert’s Fish Camp during a field campaign near Hawley Lake, ON (2011). Thanks also for field and logistical support from Western University, McGill University, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), and De Beers Canada, during a field campaign near the Victor Diamond Mine (2012). Extensive data syntheses were completed in support of this research. Thanks are extended to Dr. Arthur Dyke for providing access to the Canadian basal radiocarbon database; Professor Peter Kuhry for contributing raw peat core data; and Dr. Dan McKenney for access to gridded climate data. Graduate stipend support was provided by an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Postgraduate Scholarship (CGSD2-426611-2012), Ontario Graduate Scholarship, several graduate student awards from the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto, and the Canadian Northern Studies Trust Scholarship from the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies (2010 – 2014). Field research was further supported by graduate student research grants from the Society of Wetland Scientists (1) and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada’s Northern Scientific Training Program grants (2). I am extremely grateful for opportunities to enrich my graduate studies. I spent an invaluable three months as a visiting scientist at Columbia University, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), under the auspices of the NSERC Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement. This v special research opportunity supported extension of my doctoral research, under the guidance of Dr. Dorothy Peteet (co-affiliated with NASA-GISS), and included insightful and productive collaborations with Drs. Liz Corbett, Linda Heusser, and Jonathan Nichols. Thank you to each of you for welcoming me into your research group. Gratitude is also extended to Professor Zicheng Yu, at Lehigh University and Professors Tim Moore and Nigel Roulet at McGill University, for including me in stimulating peatland network meetings and research workshops. Graduate enrichment opportunities to study multivariate statistics at the University College London (2011) and to conduct field work in Sweden and across Finland (2012) were further supported by awards from the University of Toronto’s Centre for Global Change Science (2). Special thanks to Dr. Jukka Turunen from the Geological Survey of Finland, for mentorship and logistical support during my 2012 field campaign in Finland. Personal Acknowledgements My graduate journey would not have been as successful or fulfilling without the love and support of my parents, extended family and close friends. They have been my constant foundation, and I am forever indebted to them for their patience, advice, and interest in my work. Deepest thanks. Many friends and colleagues at the U of T, within the peatland community, and from around the world have enriched my graduate experience beyond words. They are too numerous to name; however, I have deeply enjoyed the conversations, collaborations, and extra-curricular activities. I sincerely hope our paths will continue to cross, and wish each of them all the best. vi Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................
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