Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate Action
Flo was invited to address the Joint Committee on Climate Action in the Houses of the Oireachtas on the subject of peatland conservation, restoration and role in climate change mitigation. Her address and subsequent discussion with the members of the committee can be found here https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/oireachtas-tv/video-archive/committees/2933/
Climate Strike
Earthy Matters were proud to stand with Donegal students in the Climate strike in Letterkenny on Sep 27th 2019.
IPCC Land Use Report
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report today on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. Flo was a contributing author to Chapter 4: Land degradation. The report shows that better land management can contribute to tackling climate change, but is not the only solution. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors is essential if global warming is to be kept to well below 2ºC, if not 1.5ºC.
Care-Peat Interreg Europe Project Meeting
David attended the Care-Peat (Carbon Reduction through Peatlands) Interreg Europe Project Meeting in Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath and the subsequent visit to one of the demonstration sites at Cloncrow Bog. Over the duration of the 3-year project, Earthy Matters will provide GHG expertise and data to the Irish partners of the project that also includes partners in France, Belgium, Netherlands and UK.
Photo: Chris Uys
GHG emission factors for UK peatlands
Earthy Matters contributed to a large meta-analysis study of GHG emission factors in UK peatlands led by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. The report can be found here.
Our new paper
The multi-year GHG and biodiversity datasets at Blackwater and Moyarwood provide valuable information with regard to the environmental benefits that accrue from rewetting & recolonisation of industrial peatlands in Ireland.
Free access of our paper until March
https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1YOou3IW-wXynf… …
Happy New Year
We would like to wish all our clients and colleagues a happy 2019.
David is mentioned in the article Why peatlands matter in the battle against climate change by Paddy Woodworth in the Irish Times today.
End of peat extraction
Flo is featured in the article End of an era as Ireland closes its peat bogs 'to fight climate change by Rory Carroll in The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/27/ireland-closes-peat-bogs-climate-change
10 Things to Know About Soil
Flo appeared in Episode 3, Series 4 of 10 Things to Know About on RTE television this evening. She explained why conservation and restoration of peatlands are so important for biodiversity and carbon benefits. She and Ph.D student Kilian Walz showed host Jonathan McCrea how to core peat with an auger.
Photo: http://10thingstoknowabout.ie/episode-3-soil/
IPS Workshop
Flo attended the annual Irish Peat Society (IPS) workshop and field trip in Enniskillen on the 16th and 17th Oct 2018. She gave a 20 minute presentation outlining the results and conclusions from our recently published EPA report: Vulnerability Assessment of Peatlands: Exploration of Impacts and Adaptation Options in Relation to Climate Change and Extreme Events (VAPOR).
Photo: Ronan Casey
IPCC Special Report
Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its long-awaited special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
The report can be accessed here.
AUGER project
Our last week of peat coring in the AUGER project. Over two years, we have taken nearly 300 cores across a wide range of peatland land categories - pristine, grassland, peat extraction (domestic and industrial) and forested sites. Our deepest core was around 9m and the most shallow was 0.5m. The data will feed into the ECOSSE model and forms the basis of PhD student Kilian Walz’s thesis.
Pristine blanket bog, Co. Donegal. Photo: David Wilson
Wetscapes conference, Germany
On the 5th and 6th September 2018, David attended and presented at the Wetscapes: Peat under water conference near Rostock, Germany. His talk was titled “Multi-year GHG balances and vegetation dynamics in rewetted peatlands in Ireland”, where he discussed site specific GHG responses to rewetting after the cessation of peat extraction/drainage.
Automated chambers at the polder Zarnekow site. Photo: David Wilson
Moyarwood
Chambers employed to measure methane and nitrous oxide fluxes at the rewetted raised bog at Moyarwood, Co. Galway. Photo: David Wilson.
So, after five years of measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in all kinds of weather, we made our final visit to the Moyarwood site. Drained in the 1980s by Bord na Móna, the site was earmarked for peat extraction but was never exploited, although domestic turf cutting had taken place around the margins of the site. The site was rewetted in 2012/2013 (by drain blocking) and we measured GHG fluxes from that time until today. Now, we will process the data and submit our findings for peer-review.