Friday, September 19, 2014
Camosun bog was featured in the Regional Science Fair last year by young scientists Vicky and Hannah who are crazy boggers: Read about their findings below!
Peat Bogs: Contributors or Inhibitors of the Greenhouse Gas Effect?
If the temperature in Vancouver increases, the bogs will release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The ultimate goal of this experiment was to see if increased temperature would result in bogs releasing more CO2 than they absorb. We also want to inform visitors of the potential role of bogs as sources of CO2. It is worrying that the majority of estimates for future temperature increase do not account for all of the possible release of Greenhouse Gases (CO2 and CH4) through natural processes. Many “carbon sinks” are releasers of Greenhouse Gases, with peat bogs in the lead. Even though peat bogs only cover around 3% of the earth’s surface, they store approximately 740 gigatons of carbon. For comparison, this is the equivalent to up to 65 years’ worth of the global carbon emission from fossil-fuels. It is crucial for people to realize the severity of climate change and the need for something to be done. There are countless contributors to climate change bursting forth in a chain reaction.
Human activity is the cause of the dramatic increase of atmospheric CO2 in recent years. It is clear that the release of CO2 and other Greenhouse Gases is having profound effects on plants, animals, and humans alike. However, many people do not realize that increasing global temperatures may disrupt the natural processes in which CO2 is recycled.
CO2 release from nature wouldn’t pose any threat under normal conditions. Unfortunately, increasing global temperatures may be causing our bogs to release CO2 faster than they can absorb it. For that reason, the objective of this experiment is to find out if the release of CO2 by bogs in Vancouver is correlated with increasing temperatures expected with global warming. If increasing temperatures do in fact cause bogs to release CO2, and the release of CO2 from bogs does indeed cause temperatures to increase, we have a vicious cycle on our hands.