Dr. Merritt Rae Turetsky

YouTube video by TEDx Talks Bogs are real superheroes, cast as villains | Dr. Merritt Turetsky | TEDxBoulder

I spoke to my deep passion of bogs and peatlands in this TEDx talk. Will you join me in becoming a bog champion? m.youtube.com/watch?v=mWt9...

YouTube video by TEDx Talks Bogs are real superheroes, cast as villains | Dr. Merritt Turetsky | TEDxBoulder

I spoke to my deep passion of bogs and peatlands in this TEDx talk. Will you join me in becoming a bog champion? m.youtube.com/watch?v=mWt9...

Thank you for this!

For the #canvas25 William H. Patrick, Jr. Memorial Lectureship, @queenofpeat.bsky.social is detailing the interplay between water, ecology, and CO2 and methane emissions in the long-term Alaska Peatland Experiment.

www.lter.uaf.edu/research/stu...

Overwintering fires can occur in both peatlands and upland forests with varying ecological impacts - Nature Ecology & Evolution Field measurements of fires burning over winter at 20 sites in the Northwest Territories of Canada and in Alaska find that such fires occur in both peatlands and upland forests, and provide informatio...

Here's the study of the varying ecological effects of zombie fires in Canada and Alaska that @queenofpeat.bsky.social is detailing at #canvas25:

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

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

Cover of a children's book called Secret of Haunted Bog.

Bog folklore stems from physical dangers- sinking into bottomless peat, getting lost in endless flatlands. Then there are the mental challenges. The next time you come across an eerie bog tale, know that it is at least partly real. Have a wonderful and safe Halloween! 13/13

Image of a stone with Heaney's poem Bogland inscribed on it.

As a child, elders told Seamus Heaney never to go near the bog because it was bottomless, and hid bogeyman and dangers. Later he recalled these bog creatures of his childhood as “uncatalogued by any naturalist, but none the less real for that”. BogBoo 12/

Screen capture of the Princess Bride from the fire swamp.

Methane produced by microbes deep in peat and burbles to the surface is flammable. Could this explain the ghost light of will-o'-the-wisps? And who can forget the fire swamp in the Princess Bride? Folklore rooted in bog biology! BogBoo 11/

In case you thought this was not real, here are my colleagues Torre Jorgenson and Tom Douglas hitting the "motherload" of methane release from thawing permafrost in an Alaskan bog. Curious bog dog is bonus. BogBoo 10/

Image of Labyrinth's Bog of Eternal Stench.

Some bog-lore focuses on strange gases produced by anaerobic microbes. Sulfate reduction smells like rotten eggs. Methane burbles up & farts. Entering a bog is like walking into strange science. Cue Labyrinth's Bog of Eternal Stench, where the scent of peat will never leave your skin. BogBoo 9/

Image of yellow blue and red lights in a swampy ecosystem.

Did jack-o'-lanterns originate from bogs? Will-o'-wisps are ghost lights seen at night over boggy land, and are thought to have inspired jack-o'-lantern stories. Will-o'-wisps lure travelers with hope into an impossible or sinister situation, a metaphorical reference to dangers in the bog. BogBoo 8/

A menacing bogeyman with red eyes made of plant matter.

Every culture has its own version of a bogeyman, an entity causing irrational fear, often a shapeshifter. Here is Martin Mystery's Bogeyman, a vaguely human villain made of plant matter. BogBoo 7/

Image of a moss covered forest with a moss covered stump that looks like a human form.

Mosses dominate the surface of bogs and can creep over mounds and stumps to take on interesting and curious shapes. Could this explain the legend of bogeys, thought to lurk in bogs to lure unwary wanderers into bottomless pools? BogBoo 6/

Image from Lord of the Rings Dead Marshes.

In literature, bogs are often the final stage of a journey presenting physical and mental danger. Or hiding places for those in desperate need. From Tolkien's Dead Marshes to the Swamp of Sadness, bogs are full of spooky symbolism (often well deserved!). BogBoo 5/

A bog landscape with hills in the background and clumps of vegetation in open water in the foreground.

Peat embodies the mysterious in between life and death.

The ground itself is kind, black butter
Melting & opening underfoot,
Missing its last definition
By millions of years.
They'll never dig coal here,
Only the waterlogged trunks
Of great firs, soft as pulp.
-S. Heaney 4/

Image of the museum exhibit of Lindow Man, a bog body.

Behold Lindow Man who was killed between 2BC-119AD, encased by the bog and immortalized. Lindow Man is a symbol of ancient people's relationship with bogs. Was he a thief tossed aside, or part of a ritual using the bog as a supernatural portal? Scholars today lean towards the latter. BogBoo 3/

Image of moss and clumps of grass covering open water in a thin skim.

He screamed. I would never presume to interrupt you, sir. But the ground appears to be swallowing me up.

"It is a bog" said the gentleman helpfully. "It is a most terrifying substance". -S Clark

Bogs are "drowning grounds" that look stable until they are not. BogBoo 2/

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

Haha I love this! I call this the barf method. Just get it out with no oversight. You have inserted method to the madness!

Yes. Such a good tip. Thank you.

Nature and exercise for the win.

I am leading graduate students through a discussion on effective writing practices. How do you push through writer’s block when it hits you? Please share your tips!

Good question. Methane is actually odorless but the organics in permafrost itself can smell very earthy. Also, in wet areas experiencing thaw, sulfate in permafrost can be reduced which smells like rotten eggs. So the smells tell us a lot actually!

Field demo from rapidly changing northern ecosystems. This shows a violent stream of methane bubbles venting through thawing permafrost soils to the sky. Video credit to Tom Douglas and Torre Jorgenson. Curious bog dog is a Friday bonus.

Outside Fairbanks Alaska.

Yes methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. Thawing permafrost mostly releases carbon dioxide today but is expected to emit more and more methane in coming decades.

Field demo from rapidly changing northern ecosystems. This shows a violent stream of methane bubbles venting through thawing permafrost soils to the sky. Video credit to Tom Douglas and Torre Jorgenson. Curious bog dog is a Friday bonus.

Yes there will be! Takes a couple of months to produce the videos and I will link it once they go live.

Dreams & Reality Speakers for TEDxBoulder For 16 years TEDxBoulder has been captivating audiences with talks from all diciplines. Videos are posted here and live talks happen every fall.

Excited to be a speaker at TEDx Boulder Dreams and Reality this Sunday. Teaser: My dream is to live in a world that embraces boglands as sacred places. The reality is we live in a world intent on destroying them. But we can fight back and become bog champions. tedxboulder.com/speakers/dre...