Rooney_BorealCarbon_Moores_

Boreal Ecosystems and their
Role in Carbon Storage and
Sequestration
Rooney RC, Bayley SE, Schindler DW (2012) Oil sands mining and reclamation cause massive loss
of peatland and stored carbon. PNAS 109: 4933-4937
By: Josh Moores
Photo by
Overview
1. Case Study
2. Methods
3. Results/Conclusions
4. Ecosystem Relevance
5. Global Scope
6. Socio-Economic Issues
7. Take Home Messages
Case Study
  Rooney RC, Bayley SE, Schindler DW (2012) Oil sands mining and
reclamation cause massive loss of peatland and stored carbon. PNAS
109: 4933-4937
  Primary Peer-Reviewed Literature
  PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
•  highly citied comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals, publishing
content with biological, physical, and social sciences with a global perspective
Study Area
Study conducted within the boreal landscape
of the Oil Sands mining area
Oil Sands deposits accessible by open-pit
surface mining cover around 475,000 ha of
boreal forest
10 mines have current approval to operate
covering about 167,000 ha
Accessed 4 of the 10 approved mines
comparing pre vs. post-mining landscapes
(represents 42% of approved mining area)
Pre-mining landscape dominated by
peatlands (e.g. forested and shrubby fens)
Gov. of Albe
Study Objectives
1.  Attempt to quantify land cover changes (vegetation cover) that will
result from approved Oil Sands mines and their impact on carbon
storage and sequestration
2.  Examine the total loss of peatlands in the study area (four mines) by
scaling up using similar land conversion ratios for the remainder six
mines
3.  Argue that losses of stored soil carbon should be included with
carbon emissions from Oil Sands extraction and upgrading
Methods
• Used data from an Environmental Impact Assessment
conducted by Raine et al. 2002
• Data included vegetation cover within and surrounding the
surface mineable oil sands area
• Examined the pre-disturbance/“baseline” conditions for land
cover classes and compared them to post-mining conditions
Results/Conclusions   Post-disturbance: reclaimed lands will involve a high percentage
conversion of peatlands to uplands – 15,000 ha increase in uplands
and 12,000 ha decrease in peatlands for 4 of 10 mines, scaling up, all
10 mines results in a loss of 29,000 ha of peatlands
  Replacing bogs and fens with upland forest vegetation will change
above ground and understory vegetation yielding forests to shift in age
structure to younger upland forests
  Upland forests are drier and more susceptible to fire, and also upland
understory plant species accumulated less carbon in the soil
Before
https://albertawilderness.ca/issues/wildwater/wetlands After
http://www.plant.ca/production/mine-pit-reclamation-88562/. Results/Conclusions
  Substantial loss of peatlands in these areas will result in the loss of
ecosystem services and carbon storage ability
  Estimated that one barrel of oil produces 60-160 kg of CO2 emissions
and with productions reaching 1.1 million barrels per day, results in
>7000 tonnes of CO2 produced per day
  The above emissions completely neglect the carbon emissions from
the loss of peatlands, authors suggest that peatland losses could be
equivalent to 7 years worth of carbon emissions from mining
Results/Conclusions
  Based off extensive studies conducted in the Mackenzie River Basin,
peat carbon storage has been estimated to be 1,900–6,050 tons of
carbon per ha
  Reclaimed soils have much less carbon 50 – 146 tons of carbon per ha
  Replacing more than 29,000 ha of peatlands with reclaimed soils
results in a lose between 11.4 and 47.3 million tonnes of stored carbon
Results/Conclusion
  Peatland loss will also influence the region’s potential to sequester
carbon in the future
  Estimated rate of carbon sequestration is 24.5 g C/m2 of peatland/y,
losing 29, 000 ha of peatlands, results in the lose of 5,734–7,241 tons
C/y sequestration potential due to approved mines
  Reclaimed landscapes will also sequester carbon at a much lower rate,
due to composition of litter, climate, soils, and fire regimes
Results/Conclusion   Other studies looking at reclaimed landscapes found that majority of carbon
sequestered in landscape was from left over peat from stockpiles (Welham,
2010)
  Study by Turcotte (2009) found that soil organic matter in reclaimed land
demonstrated rapid rates of decomposition of peat
  Conversion of peatlands to uplands transform a permeant carbon storage
pool into a temporary one that leaks carbon rather than sequestering it
  Researchers suggests it may take reclaimed forests 15 years before carbon
sequestration by vegetation exceeds carbon emissions from decomposing
peat, suggesting reclaimed lands will be a net source of carbon years
following mining
Ecosystem Relevance
ermanent landscape changes
otential loss of biodiversity
rough the reduction of
etland organisms
eduction in habitat
pecially for habitat
ecialists species (e.g.
ecies at risk, amphibians,
ants, waterfowl, ungulates,
c.)
http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/policy-and-politics/getting-price-r
Ecosystem Relevance mpact natural hydrological
ystems and functions
otential reduction in the
bility of wetlands to
mprove water quality,
lter out pollutants, trap
ediment, and reduce
ooding risk
n the short term, reduced
bility to sequester and
torage carbon for the
tmosphere
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pembi
Global Scope
•  Boreal forest is said to be the world’s largest and most important forest carbon storehouse
Anielski and Wilson (2010)
Global Scope
  Anthropogenic disturbances in the
boreal forest: 1) Resource extraction,
2) Deforestation, 3) Land conversions;
change the ability for boreal
ecosystems to sequester and store
carbon, and result in changes to albedo
and exchanges in energy
  Land conversion to upland forests
increase risks of fire and insect
disturbances and have the potential to
result in positive feedbacks for
atmospheric CO2
http://hwtproject.ca/ottawa-river-shoreline/jason-goulds-line
Global Scope
Many other countries dominated
by boreal forest are exploiting
peatlands
The Russian federation next to
Canada has the second largest
global peat resource – 186 billion
tonnes
Russia is one of the world’s
largest mineral producer,
accounting for 14% of the
world’s total mineral extraction
(Thomas, 2011)
Mir Mine , second largest diamond mine in the world, located in Mirny, Eastern Sibe
Russia. http://whenonearth.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Mir-Mine-Russia-Panora
Socio-Economic Issues
  Air quality, may be affected by not including the source of carbon
from peatland disturbances
  Clean water, potentially citizens will have to compensate costs for
reduced ecological services through the reduction of peatlands
  Reduction in natural capital (carbon sequestration) and role of
peatland and wetlands to provide from sustenance hunting and fishing
Take Home Messages
1. At both global and regional scales, boreal
forest ecosystems play an important
ole in sequestering and storing carbon in soils
2. Losses of soil carbon should be included with carbon emissions from Oil
Sands extraction and other resource extraction in the boreal biome
3. It may take reclaimed forests 15 years before carbon sequestration by
vegetation exceeds carbon emissions from decomposing peat, suggesting
eclaimed lands will be a net source of carbon years following mining
4. The conversion of peatlands may result in losses of biodiversity and habitat
or a variety specialized and at risk or threatened species
5. The Boreal forest is the world’s largest and most important forest carbon
torehouse and needs to be managed appropriately to ensure the persistence of
he major roles it plays, at a global level, for carbon sequestration and storage
nces
i M, Wilson S (2010) Real Wealth of the McKenzie Region: Assessing the Natural Capital Values of a Northern Boreal Ecosystem (Canadian Boreal Initiative,Ottawa, ON). 25.
ine Lake Picture - http://www.plant.ca/production/mine-pit-reclamation-88562/. Retrieved 25 January 2016
Forest pic - http://w3.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/boreal.htm. Retrieved 25 January 2016
photo - http://ecocidealert.com/?tag=boreal-forest. Retrieved 25 January 2016
ture - https://albertawilderness.ca/issues/wildwater/wetlands/. Retrieved 25 January 2016
M, Mackenzie I, Gilchrist I (2002) CNRL Horizon Project environmental impact assessment. Vol 6 Appendix B. Terrestrial Vegetation, Wetlands and Forest Resources Baseline
Associates, Calgary, AB), Report no. 012-2220.
RC, Bayley SE, Schindler DW (2012) Oil sands mining and reclamation cause massive loss of peatland and stored carbon. PNAS 109: 4933-4937
Area - http://oilsands.alberta.ca/resource.html. Retrieved 25 January 2016
5 picture - http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/policy-and-politics/getting-price-right. Retrieved 30 January 2016
6 picture - https://www.flickr.com/photos/pembina/3792000159. Retrieved 30 January 2016
9 picture (mir mine) - http://whenonearth.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Mir-Mine-Russia-Panorama.png. Retrieved 30 January 2016
e I (2009) Soil organic matter quality in northern Alberta’s oil sands reclamation area. MSc thesis (University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB)
s and White (2011). http://www.thomaswhite.com/global-perspectives/sitting-on-a-gold-mine-metals-and-mining-in-Russia. /Retrieved 30 January 2016
Questions or Comments?