Posters note: think this might have been posted. There's some new comment below, however. The abstract is at the bottom
Paper link http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/370/1974/4404 Comment from new scientist "Save the bogs" isn't as catchy as "save the whales", but the cause is just as worthwhile. UK peat bogs damaged by 150 years of pollution are to be restored with a scattering of tiny mosses. The rebuilt bogs should improve water quality and could slow climate change. In the future, they might even be used to geoengineer a cooler climate by storing carbon dioxide.Peat bogs depend on a protective layer of sphagnummoss that traps the peat layers, as well as providing the raw material for new peat. But air pollution since the industrial revolution has killed much of the UK's sphagnum, leaving bare expanses of decomposing black peat that pollute water supplies and release carbon dioxide, accelerating climate change.On 24 and 25 September, volunteers from the Moors for the Future Partnership scattered 150 million gel beads onto damaged UK peat. Each bead contained a tiny sphagnum plant, which should colonise the peat and begin restoring the protective cover. Climate time bomb The world's peat bogs are a climate time bomb waiting to go off: they store about 455 gigatonnes of carbon, and are releasing increasing amounts. But according toChris Freeman of Bangor University, UK, we could turn that around. Peat bogs could be used to geoengineer the climate by removing carbon dioxide from the air.Freeman is trying to develop a genetically modified sphagnum that could boost the amount of carbon stored in peat. Sphagnum naturally produces phenolic compounds that slow the decomposition of the plants that make up peat. Preventing peat decomposition will help keep the carbon it holds locked away. Freeman wants to create a sphagnum that overproduces phenolics, slowing peat decomposition even further.Freeman says the genetically modified sphagnum could store enough carbon each year to offset global transportation emissions. It will take at least 10 years to develop the modified plant (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, DOI: doi.org/jd3).It's a promising idea, not least because it also restores habitats and improves water quality, says Tim Kruger of the Oxford Geoengineering Programme at the University of Oxford. "What's important is to understand how long the carbon is stored," he says. If the changing climate causes the peat to decompose, the carbon dioxide will escape again. Abstract Terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems contribute almost equally to the sequestration of ca50 per cent of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and already play a role in minimizing our impact on Earth’s climate. On land, the majority of the sequestered carbon enters soil carbon stores. Almost one-third of that soil carbon can be found in peatlands, an area covering just 2–3% of the Earth’s landmass. Peatlands are thus well established as powerful agents of carbon capture and storage; the preservation of archaeological artefacts, such as ancient bog bodies, further attest to their exceptional preservative properties. Peatlands have higher carbon storage densities per unit ecosystem area than either the oceans or dry terrestrial systems. However, despite attempts over a number of years at enhancing carbon capture in the oceans or in land-based afforestation schemes, no attempt has yet been made to optimize peatland carbon storage capacity or even to harness peatlands to store externally captured carbon. Recent studies suggest that peatland carbon sequestration is due to the inhibitory effects of phenolic compounds that create an ‘enzymic latch’ on decomposition. Here, we propose to harness that mechanism in a series of peatland geoengineering strategies whereby molecular, biogeochemical, agronomical and afforestation approaches increase carbon capture and long-term sequestration in peat-forming terrestrial ecosystems. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
