Tiny but mighty mosses are so often overlooked but they are the reason northern #peatlands store so much carbon and persist as long-term carbon sinks.

Peatlands are resilient, but if we don't reduce industrial emissions, they may struggle.

Find out more:
open.substack.com/pub/peatpedi...

#COP30

"There's a polar bear swimming towards us." 🐻‍❄️

Did you know you can find polar bears in the far north of Ontario? Living on the edge of one of the world's largest peatland complexes?

More to come in a short series of new Peatpedia posts on Muskeg and Mines.

open.substack.com/pub/peatpedi...

QGIS or ArcGIS Pro? After using all ArcGIS forms for 20+ yrs, I recently had to switch to #QGIS for a few new #peatland projects and it works great! Its quick to produce maps (examples below) and more complex spatial analyses are all possible and some even seem to run a bit faster.

#maps #gis

#WorldWaterWeek has been truly inspiring. We have taken water for granted for too long. The same applies to #peatlands - they are undervalued, despite their importance to us. Moving forward, we must be water-smart as well as climate-smart in our decision-making for peatlands in Canada and globally.

Looking forward to learning from and participating in important conversations during #WorldWaterWeek - happening now in Stockholm and online. Registration for online attendance is free!

#peatlands #wetlands

worldwaterweek.org

Happy #WorldBogDay!

To celebrate here is a coloured pencil drawing of #Cloudberry, a plant that can cover the surface of bogs across the boreal, creating a sea of beautiful golden berries above the soft Sphagnum moss.

#peatlands #muskeg #botanicalart #art #natureart

I haven't posted in a while - been busy with a few projects, including this one for the Alberta Native Plant Council. Botanical drawings in pen, for colouring pages! This is 1 of 3. You can find these pages at ANPC events this summer 🌿

Great short summary video of #permafrost! Not mentioned in the video... permafrost also includes peat in northern regions, incl. Canada. These are two small cores of ice-rich permafrost peat in Yukon. Placed on a pillow of fluffy Sphagnum moss for the photo 😀

Sundews are one of my favourite #peatland plants, followed closely by one of the other carnivores - pitcher plants! As a small break from some tough times, here is a photo of a couple of pitchers in the snow in Alberta, Canada ❄️

Photo copyright: Lorna Harris

The diversity and beauty of mosses across Canada's boreal region are a constant wonder, especially when under the microscope. These two are among my favourites - Paludella squarrosa and Sphagnum warnstorfii - both within a rich fen/flush peatland in Yukon.

#bryology #sphagnum #bryophytes #peatlands

Sphagnum moss - the tiny and beautiful 'bog builder'. I'm going to be working on confirming some species IDs from sites in HBL, Yukon, and elsewhere soon. Stay tuned for more #sphagnummonday posts!

#peatlands #botany #sphagnum

Another bright spot this year was field research in Yukon in early September, with beautiful autumn colours in the peatlands🍂

It's been an unimaginably tough year, but there have been some bright spots coming through. One bright spot was field research in the always beautiful Hudson Bay Lowland peatlands with some wonderful scientists. We flew drones, surveyed vegetation 🌿, and searched for permafrost ❄️

I'm heading offline for a few weeks soon, but when I return I'm guessing I'll be on here more! Lets regroup and grow our online #peatlands community here! I'll be posting about moss, lichen, peatlands, forests + more, as always 🌿🌲🌱🌳

While I was out on the Hudson Bay coast nr Peawanuck, dodging polar bears and scoping out baby #peatlands for more research, our paper on #carbon loss from thawing #permafrost peatlands in the Northwest Territories was published in Global Change Biology: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Its almost Fieldwork Friday... here are photos of the beautiful Hudson Bay Lowlands where I did my PhD research and where I continue to have the privilege to work. The HBL is the second largest peatland complex in the world - it is bigger than Germany! Its also one of the world's largest C stores.