30. Pine cone, soil auger and furnace crucibles
Ben Kerwin, Undergraduate Student Prize Winner 2024
Peatlands cover just 3% of earth’s surface but contain over 600 gigatons of carbon. This is similar in magnitude to the volume of carbon stored in the world’s forests (861 gigatons). In the context of a warming climate, it is of great value to understand how to best manage these vast, yet undervalued carbon sinks.
Since the middle of the 20th century, UK peatlands have been drained at scale for commercial forestry to meet increasing timber demand. It is theorised that the resultant water table drawdown increases the extent of peat exposed to oxygen, enhancing decomposition and releasing carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
My dissertation tested the net impact of a spruce plantation on carbon storage in a raised bog in the Scottish West Highlands. I used a carbon stocks approach to measure and compare total carbon stored in in the afforested bog and an adjacent pristine bog with the same formation history and nutrient conditions.
