Canada holds a quarter of the world’s soil carbon. Keeping it in the ground could curb climate change, experts say

These carbon-rich soils are found mostly in peatlands: the swampy swamps of northern Ontario and parts of Manitoba that are filled with accumulated plant material that has accumulated over thousands of years.

Soil carbon is deposited in the soil through the decomposition of plant and organic matter, root systems and microorganisms. It is a valuable resource because it is a way to prevent that carbon from entering the atmosphere.

If this sequestered carbon is released – through natural events, such as forest fires or human activities, such as mining, logging and agriculture – it ends up in the atmosphere. and worsens global warming, scientists say.

The study, released Wednesday at the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow, suggests that protecting this carbon is key to Canada’s climate efforts.

Maintaining a 1.5 C limit on global warming “within reach” is one of the key goals of COP26, the annual meeting of the Conference of the Parties, the global decision-making body created in the 1990s to implemented the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and subsequent climate agreements.

“Storing carbon in ecosystems… can be a critical path to achieving a 1.5 ° C future, ensuring that carbon is not emitted into the atmosphere and, in turn, trying to increase the amount of carbon we store in these terrestrial ecosystems, ”said James Snider, who leads the science, knowledge and innovation team at World Wildlife Fund-Canada, which conducted the study in partnership with McMaster University in Hamilton.

Canada’s size, peatlands make it a good carbon sink

Canada has so much carbon in the soil – 384 billion tonnes – thanks to the large amount of peatlands, which have layers of plant matter, and the size of the country.

According to the study, about five percent of Canada’s terrestrial carbon is stored in plants, trees, shrubs and other plants above ground, while about 95 percent of it is found underground. in the top meter of the ground.

The results put a renewed emphasis on Canada’s conservation efforts. The federal government is committed to protecting or conserving 25 percent of Canada’s land by 2025 and working to protect 30 percent by 2030 as part of the country’s efforts to address climate change and defend vulnerable species and ecosystems.

“Canada has a huge global responsibility for managing and protecting the carbon in this ecosystem,” said Snider.

“It’s not just important to us… it’s important globally, to show how a country like Canada can, in fact, still protect these places in the right way.”

The study includes a detailed description menu where carbon is stored in Canada, up to a resolution of 250 meters. This could allow organizations, governments, and even individuals to focus on certain areas and determine how carbon-rich an ecosystem is – and how important it might be to protect it.

Recent technology makes study possible

The study combined field surveys, satellite technology and machine learning to result in the first account of total carbon stores in Canada’s ecosystems. Some of the techniques represent recent technological advances that were not available to researchers in the past.

One example is a satellite laser technology called LiDAR that researchers used to measure the height of the canopy of trees. The technology sends laser beams from a satellite to Earth, then measures the time it takes for the beams to bounce to determine the height of trees in various areas.

“[If] we don’t know how much carbon is in forest trees and peatlands and agricultural soils and plant roots and dead plants … we cannot plan meaningful conservation activities to preserve the carbon that is underground Said Alemu Gonsamo, Assistant Professor at McMaster and Canada Research Chair in Remote Sensing of Terrestrial Ecosystems.

Gonsamo worked on the study, helping to identify where carbon is stored. The next step is to use this data to determine where this carbon is most likely to be lost.

“We can predict how much carbon will be released if the warming continues as it has been so far,” Gonsamo said.

Development and agriculture disrupt carbon reserves

Forestry expert Suzanne Simard said the study confirmed what she had seen in her own research, but the large amount of carbon found in the soil still surprised her.

“When you understand the seriousness of the stores, the seriousness of potentially losing them, it becomes more important in the minds of people,” said Simard, professor at the University of British Columbia in Vamcouver and author of Find the mother tree, which tells about his life studying forests.

“I am a scientist who studies soils, and I am delighted and surprised to see these numbers.”

Soil carbon faces several threats, Simard said, both directly and indirectly from human activity. For example, northern permafrost, which is permanently frozen ground in Canada’s arctic region, could melt due to climate change, releasing its carbon stores into the atmosphere.

This in turn would accelerate climate change, Simard says, causing a feedback loop that could lead to even more permafrost melting.

Human activities such as mechanized agriculture, oil and gas exploration, and mining also release this carbon.

“If we are to try to neutralize our carbon emissions by 2050, this is a major place that we have to pay attention to,” she said.

“Let’s not lose more carbon from these amazing stocks.”

Keep carbon in the soil

The Gonsamo team also works with the Mushkegowuk Council, which represents eight Cree First Nations from the James Bay region in northern Ontario. The area has been identified in the report as containing some of the most carbon-rich ecosystems in Canada.

Members of several indigenous communities will collect measurements on the ground to help further deepen the amount of carbon stored in the region.

“We felt it was important to be a part of that and map the carbon that we are trying to draw attention to in our region because it is a huge store of carbon,” said Vern. Cheechoo, council director of lands and resources.

“It’s a huge, huge carbon sink.”

The region is home to the Ring of Fire, an area 500 kilometers north of Thunder Bay that contains valuable deposits of chromite, a component of steel, as well as minerals used in batteries such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. .

The Ontario government plans to open the area to mining and has proposed legislative changes to remove barriers to development in the area. Several indigenous communities oppose the plan. New data on carbon stocks in the region’s soils could support the argument that the area should be protected.

In a roundtable discussion at the COP26 conference this week, Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault admitted the country had “catching up” to do on conservation. He said his government is committed to meeting Canada’s land protection goals.

He spoke directly to the Ring of Fire Project, stating that “we see our continued effort at reconciliation as a guarantee that these activities on First Nations, Métis and Inuit lands are carried out with their collaboration, with a place at the table for them… and in many cases, leading the way. “

Cheechoo said the study results will help Mushkegowuk Council in its efforts to protect soil carbon on its land.

“We hope that the work we are doing … [will] bring more funding for capacity building so that we can continue to monitor the carbon storage of the carbon sink and ensure that, you know, the carbon is always kept where it should be kept, ”he said. -he declares.