Image: Falkalnds Landscape

Peatlands are widely quoted as one of the most important terrestrial carbon stores on the planet; however many are now net sources of carbon, often as a result of drying due to changing land management.

While loss via gaseous exchange, such as carbon dioxide and methane release are often the most understood, there are many mechanisms by which this carbon can be lost from peatlands. In the Falklands, with its total peatland carbon stock of around 934 Mt C (Upson et al. 2006) it is estimated that 0.05 Mt C is lost each year as it is dissolved into waterways around the islands (Bax et al. 2022). This carbon can be released back into the atmosphere through evasion, where carbon dioxide is degassed from rivers.

Ecosystem exchange considers the loss or gain of carbon through photosynthesis and respiration and is thought to be in the region of 1,149,326 t CO2e yr-1 (Evans et al. 2020) for the Falkland Islands. Throughout her PhD Katy is looking to add to the data contributing to this figure by carrying out measurements of greenhouse gas exchange from peatlands across the Falklands. However, over the past few months she has also been trying to measure the loss of material through erosion. By setting up sampling traps known as ‘Big Spring Number 8’s’ she has been able to quantify the mass of particulate matter moving through the air at several sites.

Image above: The peat samples from the BSNE’s are put in a furnace once they have been dried and weighed. By heating them to a high temperature, you burn off any organic matter and can then work out the carbon content of the peat. In this picture are the ashy remains of samples.

Image above: By measuring wind and soil moisture Katy is hoping to work out which environmental factors are most significant in contributing to erosion