Description
The 21st annual PERG/GRET Symposium will be held on February 18th at the University of Waterloo, Ontario in Environment 3 Auditorium beginning at 8:30am.
A student poster session, ice breaker and dinner will be held the previous evening (Tuesday 17th), late afternoon, at the University Club on the University campus.
Context of the 21st PERG Symposium:
The Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG) is pleased to invite you to it's 21st Annual workshop, to be held in Waterloo, Ontario in February, 2015. The vast majority of wetlands in Canada are peatlands, with Canada holding one-third of the peat resources of the world. Peat is an accumulated organic matter comprising dead and partly decomposed plant material that over time can form thick deposits in temperate and boreal peatlands. Peat is a valuable resource as a growing media and soil amendment, an eco-friendly absorbent, a biofilter for wastewater treatment and for therapeutic and pharmaceutical use. Peatlands also offer valuable ecological services; for example, they are the most efficient terrestrial ecosystem for long-term carbon storage. Their role in the global climate systems warrants a critical evaluation of their management.
The horticultural peat industry of Canada has invested 23 years in R&D in habitat restoration. They continue to invest in research to achieve higher standards and better restoration practices for sustainable peatland management. 2015 sees the inaugural year of a Sphagnum fibre farming experiment
The oil sands industry, which is strongly impacting the boreal wetlands of western Canada, recognizes the need to reduce its ecological footprint. Industry has responded by supporting experimental re-creation of peatlands on decommissioned open mine areas near Fort McMurray, Alberta, and sponsoring restoration attempts of former oil pads in the Peace River region. Both Syncrude and Suncor have now completed construction of their fen recreation projects, Sandhill and Nikanotee, respectively.
Mineral resource extraction in the boreal plain of Canada has opened up vast swathes of peatlands to varying stressors. Open pit mine dewatering in the Hudson/James Bay Lowland of northern Ontario causes depressurization of the limestone aquifer that underlies the predominantly peatland-covered landscape, resulting in partial desiccation of the surrounding area.
The restoration and reclamation of extensive disturbance in peatland landscapes command innovative solutions for which PERG is at the fore-front of researching solutions to these problems.
