Clear-cutting in peatlands during oil and gas exploration led to 300 per cent more methane emissions.
Clear-cutting in peatlands during oil and gas exploration led to 300 per cent more methane emissions.
A new study reveals that for the first time, areas of Canada's boreal peatlands damaged by oil and gas exploration have failed to recover as scientists and companies predicted and instead led to a tripling of their methane emissions, with global implications.
Long paths called seismic lines are cut into the landscape to accommodate surveying equipment. Researchers from the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo measured methane gas from plant stems or the soil surface. They discovered that methane emissions in seismic lines were 300 per cent higher in the bogs and were close to 200 in the fens, compared to emissions from undisturbed sections of peatland.
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere, and as global warming accelerates, changing conditions in boreal peatlands will increase the rate of climate change and the scale of its devastating effects. The impact is already unprecedented, with the network of seismic lines in Alberta extensive enough to wrap around the Earth nine times. Similar damage occurs across the boreal regions in the United States, Russia and Scandinavia.
Read More: University of Waterloo
