David Olefeldt

Wildfire causes accelerated permafrost thaw in northern peatlands due to summer-time processes (reduced shading and soil heating) not due to winter-time processes (snow dynamics). Patience pays off - I helped instrument the site in 2014, and now completed by Stephanie Wright!
doi.org/10.1002/ppp....

Getting cold in Edmonton, so this morning it was perfect condition for pancake ice on the North Saskatchewan River.

Coarse land cover datasets bias Arctic-Boreal wetland methane budgets - Communications Earth & Environment Estimation of methane flux remained within 13% error at a resolution within 25 m, but resolutions coarser than 1 km often misclassified sites as methane sources instead of sinks, based on high-resolut...

Really pleased to be part of this new study led by Josh Hashemi showing that to accurately upscale CH₄ budgets, especially in complex landscapes, we need high-res data and land-cover classes that reflect the key enviro factors driving CH4 production and emissions

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Image of a misty spooky scene with fallen log, a pond, and patches of moss and other dark green vegetation.

Do you love bogs and Halloween? If so, please follow and share this thread to explore the eerie, the dark and the supernatural side of bog ecosystems. BogBoo. 1/

You are terrifying
and strange and
beautiful,
something not
everyone knows how
to love.
-Warsan Shire

Exciting 24-month Postdoc opportunity for a peatland palaeoecologist, working with Dr Jenna Sutherland at Leeds Beckett U. on the NERC-funded InSPIRE project. Investigating initiation of new peatlands in deglaciating parts of Alaska, including fieldwork vacancies.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/ce0984li_web...

Large Carbon Losses From Burned Permafrost Peatlands During Post‐Fire Succession Burned permafrost peatlands lost ∼130 g C m−2 yr−1 during the first four years post-fire Burned landscapes returned to a net carbon dioxide sink ∼15 years post-fire Net ecosystem exchange carbon...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

The link in the first post doesn't seem to work yet, this should do it!

YouTube video by David Olefeldt Steen River Burned Peatland site 2019

The study was done on a peat plateau which burned in 2019. Christopher and our group managed to get together instrumentation and all in a few months to start measurements. Video below shows the site when we first arrived only a few weeks after the fire.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=REGX...

So permafrost peatlands burn and they release lots of CO2 through combustion - but that's just the start. Christopher Schulze shows in a new GRL study that slow recovery causes continued CO2 losses in the following decade - overall similar in magnitude to the combustion!

doi.org/10.1029/2025...

New Study in ES&T! Permafrost peatlands accumulate mercury from distant sources, but thaw causes collapse into wetter bogs and fens. Lauren Thompson shows that these bogs, and especially fens, become hotspots for mercury methylation, and potential downstream transport.

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Our analysis also reveals where effort should be placed to further improve estimates of boreal-Arctic wetland and lake methane emissions, including wintertime methane studies from wetlands, studies of lake methane ebullition, and further refined land cover maps.

Our estimate of current-day methane emissions is ~20-40% lower than many prior studies, partly because of a bias where prior studies were more likely to target sites with relatively higher emissions. Having new land cover maps with different wetland and lake types reduces this bias.

This study uses data from almost 200 studies going back to the 1970s, with data from almost 2000 unique sites. Knowing what it takes to collect this data and publish these individual studies, it is humbling to be able to use their findings in a joint analysis – standing on the shoulder of giants.

Our modelling of future methane emissions account for both climate warming (through a space-for-time framework) and permafrost thaw (through landscape transitions caused by thaw), and we find that these effects have important interactions – although the direct effect of warming dominates.

Current and future methane emissions from boreal-Arctic wetlands and lakes - Nature Climate Change How much methane will be emitted from the boreal-Arctic region under climate change is not well constrained. Here the authors show that accounting for distinct wetland and lake classes leads to lower ...

New study where McKenzie Kuhn, I and co-authors show that accounting for differences among wetland and lake types is crucial for estimating current and future boreal-Arctic methane emissions – out now in Nature Climate Change.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Freshwater Ecology position!!! careers.ucalgary.ca/jobs/1652277...

Perfect day for measuring carbon dioxide and methane emissions from our thawed (former permafrost) fen in northern Alberta. 20 deg C, light breeze and almost no mosquitoes.

A Review of Abrupt Permafrost Thaw: Definitions, Usage, and a Proposed Conceptual Framework - Current Climate Change Reports Purpose of Review We review how ‘abrupt thaw’ has been used in published studies, compare these definitions to abrupt processes in other Earth science disciplines, and provide a definitive framework f...

The term “abrupt permafrost thaw” is increasingly used in the scientific literature. The concept comes with challenges as authors look at “abrupt“ change with different perspectives on time scales, magnitudes, and impacts. Webb et al developed a new conceptual framework: doi.org/10.1007/s406...

Carbon emissions from Canada's wildfires are spiking. But that's not counting our vast peatlands | CBC News A new government model to estimate peatland emissions and their impact on climate change could provide a new perspective on the problem — and spark new discussions about solutions.

CBC highlights the issue of greenhouse gas emissions from peatland fires in Canada.

www.cbc.ca/news/science...

Fig. 1 The complex Sphagnum microbiome.

#TansleyReview: The challenging but unique eco-evolutionary aspects of #SphagnumMoss

@queenofpeat.bsky.social, et al. 👇

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

#LatestIssue

We look at organic matter, nutrients, and mercury primarily. But also sediment and other aspects. Early results do not show major impacts of the fire, but this has been expected due to the continuing drought - we are on our toes to sample if wetter conditions flush the soils.

The black lines are the roads which we collect water samples along - shown with the historical fire map you can see that ~half of this large region has burned in the last few years. There are community concerns about impacts of wildfires and permafrost thaw on water and traditional land use.

I spent this week collecting river samples in northwestern Canada (Dehcho, Hay, and South Slave regions), an area the size of England with ~4,000 km of driving.

And so much of the landscape is burned - we drove hours and hours through charred forests. The last decade has been unprecedented.

The bog gives and the bog takes. Liam Heffernan's PhD site, the Lutose thermokarst big - photos from 2015 and today 10 years later... Note the trees dying in the background due to permafrost thaw, and the growth of Sphagnum mosses covering our once proud boardwalk!

I have a fully funded PhD position open for start in Jan or May 2026. Field work in peatlands of the Northwest Territories, with lab work to understand potential downstream mobilization of carbon, nutrients, mercury after thaw or wildfire. Reach out for more information, and please send on!

When the Arctic burns, the soils thaw. How much and for how long? Anna Talucci compiled depth of thaw measurements from 157 sites, now published in ESSD. Main impact occurs 4-10 years after fire, but effects remain 20+ years. Key information to estimate losses of soil C!

doi.org/10.5194/essd...

Peatlands as a natural defence: An innovative approach to Europe's security Europe’s defence needs a rethink. Rewetting peatlands offers a low-cost, dual solution for security, climate action, and nature conservation.

'We should restore peatlands to slow down the invading Russians' as an idea tells us a lot about the state we are in.

www.aeco.earth/blog/peatlan...

My perspective “Tree methane exchange in a changing world” is now out in @natrevearthenviron.nature.com rdcu.be/erF4j

Mapping the world's inland surface waters: an upgrade to the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD v2) Abstract. In recognition of the importance of inland waters, numerous datasets mapping their extents, types, or changes have been created using sources ranging from historical wetland maps to real-tim...

This new map provides a global view of the distribution of a multitude of aquatic ecosystems, including various wetlands. It's a pretty big step forward, and I look forward to seeing how it will be used e.g. to study wetland greenhouse gases.

essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...

Search Jobs - University Affairs

We are looking for a Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Community Ecology, Biological Invasions, Allelopathy, and Plant-Soil Feedbacks.

Details here:

universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...