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October 2020 - Issue 52
The Wetland Knowledge Exchange (WKE) is the official voice of the Canadian Conservation and Land Management Knowledge Network's Wetland Knowledge Portal. The WKE is a venue for sharing wetland information to raise awareness, increase information transfer, and build a community of practice. Explore the Wetland Knowledge Portal here 

Monthly Webinar Series 

This month Taylor North and the McMaster Ecohydrology Lab will present on iWETLAND: Managing Species at Risk Habitat through Wetland Water Level Citizen Science.

October 28, 2020, 12:00 - 1:00 MST
Register here

In November, Felix Nwaishi of Mount Royal University and Bin Xu of the NAIT Centre for Boreal Research will present on Boreal Fen Vegetation Initiation on Residual Mineral Substrates.

November 25, 2020, 12:00 - 1:00 MST
Register here

All webinars are recorded, check out our past webinars here.

News

Towards reconciliation: 10 Calls to Action to natural scientists working in Canada

Canada’s peatlands are tinderboxes that are more likely to ignite a warming world

The Unusual Connection between Beavers, Permafrost and Climate Change

The battle for the 'breathing lands': Ontario's Ring of Fire and the fate of its carbon-rich peatlands

One key solution to the world's climate woes? Canada's natural landscapes

How are wetland plants and soils different from dier soils?

Small area, great effect: Peatland, the clever carbon capture
 

Events

Global Institute for Water Security - 2020 Distinguished Lecture Series
Weekly on Wednesday starting September 23, 2020 until December 2, 2020

Beaver Hills Biosphere Wetland Webinar
October 22, 2020

NAIT Centre for Boreal Research -Boreal Nature Series Webinar - Forest Health Perspectives
October 28, 2020

North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance - Knowledge in Know-vember Speaker Series
Weekly on Tuesday starting on November 3

American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2020
December 1-17, 2020

View a full list of events here. 

New Resources

Ohneganos: Indigenous-Led Water Conservation

Water is one of the most important global resources and is the primary medium through which we will feel the effects of climate change.  Canada’s access to clean water is increasingly being threatened. It is of great concern, particularly in Indigenous communities, where there is a lack of clean water, monitoring technologies, and management systems. 

Ohneganos is an Indigenous, community-led water research project in funded by Global Water Futures (GWF) and its aim is to build water resilience in Indigenous communities using an innovative research-based framework. This framework involves the integration and harmonization of different knowledge systems to produce new knowledge in a process known as co-creation. The project uses co-creation methods to share and integrate Indigenous and local knowledge with western science in order to inform water quality monitoring, ecosystem health, and community health related to water. Data collected will be used to develop place-based solutions to improve water security and better adapt to climate change.

To engage communities and highlight best practices during the COVID—19 pandemic, the Ohneganos team developed an online vodcast that focuses on Indigenous water security and the use of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in water management and land use planning. Episodes vary by topic and theme on a weekly basis - from Systemic and Environmental Racism is Six Nations to Maori and Haudenosaunee Women’s Roles in Stewardship. A second season launched on October 1 and is planned to feature discussions on aquifer protection, Six Nation water testing results, and segments featuring other work as part of their GWF research. Learn more about Ohneganos on their Facebook page and tune into the YouTube series here.
Satellite Determination of Peatland Water Table Dynamics

Northern peatlands store immense amounts of carbon through the accumulation of organic material. One of the key factors that influence the accumulation of organic material is the water table's position in the peat layer relative to the surface, commonly referred to as the water table depth (WTD). While WTD can easily be measured in the field, it has proven challenging to assess remotely through remote sensing and satellite technologies. However, recent research has shown promising potential of the Optical Trapezoid Model (OPTRAM), a physically-based remote sensing technique to monitor WTD changes in peatlands.  To further explore this tool, Burdun et al. (2020) examined the vegetative areas where this tool effectively monitors WTD dynamics.

Burdun et al. found that OPTRAM is most applicable when monitoring WTD in fens and bogs. More broadly, Burdun et al. concluded WTD detection is depended on two specific factors: (1) the quality of data used for the calculations and (2) the dominant vegetation in the pixel layer being used by OPTRAM. Burden believes there is also the potential for this tool to assess human disturbance on peatlands' water processes, a process that current remote sensing techniques have been unable to capture. Learn more here.
Tree Regeneration on Industrial Linear Disturbance in Peatlands

Seismic lines are the leading anthropogenic disturbance in Alberta's boreal forest and are increasingly fragmenting the landscape. Seismic lines, among other industry-related linear developments (e.g. roads, pipelines, etc.), threaten biodiversity and have had adverse effects on species such as woodland caribou. While it was once thought that seismic lines would naturally recover, many disturbances have yet to return to forested lands, particularly in wetlands such as treed peatlands.

Filicetti & Nielsen (2020) examined the effects of wildfire, microtopography and water table position on natural regeneration in disturbed peatlands. Wildfire was found to increase forest regeneration density compared to unburned sites in forests with a high proportion of conifer species. Forest regeneration was negatively impacted by excess moisture and decreased microtopography (i.e. flattening of the ground surface), a common impact of seismic lines development. Unexpectedly, changes in microtopography caused by wildfire had a positive impact on forest regeneration in bogs and poor mesic areas.  This study suggests that recently burned areas or areas that are expected to experience wildfire in the future should be considered a lower priority for active restoration. Learn more here.
Did You Know?
 
Wetland ecosystem services improve water security and assist in climate change adaptation. These services, which we call ecosystem services, fall into four categories:
  • regulating services, which support the regulation of climate and disease control;
  • supporting services, such as nutrient cycling;
  • provisioning services, which support the production of food and water; and lastly,
  • cultural services, which are the spiritual and recreational benefits we receive from nature.
Wetlands are vital providers of water-related ecosystem services, including regulating water quality, groundwater recharge, and improve resilience to storms, flooding and drought. Learn more about ecosystem services here.
 
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