Trees and Peat Capture and Store Carbon

Biological Strategy

Forest ecosystems

Anika Hazra

Modify Energy State

The ability to modify the energy state of different particles can be useful for harnessing the energy organisms need to survive. Explore how different organisms use these abilities to adapt to their different environments.

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Chemically Break Down Inorganic Compounds

The vast majority of biochemical assembly and breakdown processes–even by the most complex organisms–occur within cells. In fact, cells are able to perform hundreds, even thousands of chemical transformations at the same time under life-friendly conditions (ambient temperature and pressure in an aqueous environment). For example, inorganic pyrophosphate is hydrolyzed to form two phosphate groups in the cellular degradation pathway of fatty acids.

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Store Chemical Entities

Chemical entities include elements such as carbon and metals, and compounds such as nutrients and proteins. Living systems must often store chemical entities–for example, for food or protection–temporarily or for long periods; the latter is synonymous with sequestration. Because chemical entities can react with other chemicals, living systems must store these entities so that they are stable and out of the way (for long-term storage) or readily available when needed (for temporary storage). An example of temporary storage is found in crustaceans such as crabs, which must shed their external skeletons as they grow. But first, a crab must absorb as much calcium carbonate from its shell as possible, storing the compound in its blood until the crab can use it to grow a new exoskeleton.

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Capture, Absorb, or Filter Gases

Oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen are all gases of particular importance to living systems. Living systems obtain these gases from water and air by trapping them, absorbing them across surfaces, or filtering them. Gases are low in density and viscosity, and when dissolved in liquids, are very low in concentration–so extracting them requires specialized strategies. As a result, living systems use the properties of gases, liquids, and solids to assist in capture, absorption, and filtering. For example, fish gills have many filaments to create a large surface area to maximize how many blood vessels come in close contact with oxygen dissolved in the water.

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a mountain with snow is in the background of a landscape with trees and shrubbery

Ecosystems

Eco- ("household"), system ("organized whole")

An ecosystem consists of all the biological and nonbiological elements that make up a defined area. That definition might seem vague, but that means it’s flexible: We can apply the word across different scales and times. Ecosystems can be small, like a single tide pool, or large, like coastal wetlands. Ecosystems can include plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, rocks, temperature, light, soil, and climate—all linked through the flow of energy and cycle of nutrients. Each part of an ecosystem interacts with, and is influenced by, other members of the system. These interactions are dynamic, leading to changes to any ecosystem over time.

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Boreal forested peatland captures carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and stores it long-term through delayed decomposition of plants.

Introduction

Plants are made of air.

Absorbing carbon dioxide as a gas, they break the invisible molecules apart and knit the atoms together into roots, stems, trunks, and leaves. Some of these structures are fleeting, disintegrating within weeks or months, and sending their carbon right back into the atmosphere. Other structures are built to last, and hold that carbon in place for decades, or even centuries––even after the death of the plant itself.

This is what gives plant-filled ecosystems like forests and peatlands so much potential for bringing down the level of carbon in the atmosphere. Trees are well known for providing this ecological service, but peat––the thick soil-like accumulation of waterlogged, partially decomposed plants––is the largest natural terrestrial carbon store. In areas where a forest grows on a bed of peat, we get boons from both worlds.

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aerial photograph of water and green jungle plants

Biological Strategy

Water Keeps Plant Matter From Releasing Carbon

Wetland ecosystems

High water levels in wetlands prevent large amounts of oxygen from reaching wetland soil, where it would enable aerobic bacteria to decompose organic matter.

The Strategy

The forested peatlands of North America’s boreal region can be as dense as other types of forests in these areas. This is significant because the less sunlight there is reaching the forest floor, the longer it takes for plants to decompose. In this way, forested peatlands can protect their peat from decomposing fully and releasing stored carbon back into the atmosphere.

Within forested peatlands, the peat itself does the heavy lifting, storing much more carbon than the trees. In fact, the forested peatlands of boreal regions in eastern Canada can store as much carbon as other wetlands, like fens and bogs, in the same areas. The combined storage capabilities and protection from decomposition create a self-sufficient system for capturing and storing carbon.

Nothing lasts forever though, and fire can cut short the long sleep that carbon would otherwise undergo, locked up in the peat. Whether natural or man-made, fires can result in both forests and peatlands releasing their stored carbon and losing some of their ability to continue storing carbon. Since forested peatlands have such high soil moisture, they are less vulnerable to fires and offer more effective, long-term carbon storage than other forests. Only the drier layers of peat at the surface of the soil are impacted by fires, leaving those deeper layers that are storing carbon unharmed. However, rising global temperatures as a result of climate change are causing drying deeper and deeper into the peat, making these areas increasingly vulnerable to fires.

The Potential

While unforested wetlands generally have greater carbon storage capacity, forested peatlands present a compelling alternate model for a sequestering ecosystem, and are worth protecting for their potential role in reducing the impacts of climate change. As humans seek to develop artificial carbon sequestration systems, the diversity of forested peatlands provides examples and inspiration for how to more effectively pull solutions to climate challenges out of thin air.

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Innovation: Industry

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Sapiem

Industrial Lung by Sapiem is a non-toxic carbon capture process that uses a synthetic form of the enzyme carbonic anhydrase.

Last Updated March 8, 2021

References

“Forested peatlands store substantial C mass in peat layers…that reach values similar to those of some open fens and bogs in boreal continental regions of eastern Canada.” (Magnan et al. 2020:7)

“The presence of a continuous coniferous cover is an important factor allowing fire propagation in peatlands, but the high water tables and high water retention capacity of Sphagnum make these ecosystems less vulnerable to fire propagation and deep burning than forests on mineral soils.” (Magnan et al. 2020:10)

Journal article

Long-term carbon sequestration in boreal forested peatlands in eastern Canada

Ecosystems | 2020 | Gabriel Magnan, Michelle Garneau, Éloïse Le Stum-Boivin, Pierre Grondin, Yves Bergeron

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