Publications by authors named "Kara Webster"

Peatlands cover approximately 12% of the Canadian landscape and play an important role in the carbon cycle through their centennial- to millennial-scale storage of carbon under waterlogged and anoxic conditions. In recognizing the potential of these ecosystems as natural climate solutions and therefore the need to include them in national greenhouse gas inventories, the Canadian Model for Peatlands module (CaMP v. 2.

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This paper reviews trends in the academic literature on cumulative effects assessment (CEA) of disturbance on forest ecosystems to advance research in the broader context of impact assessments. Disturbance is any distinct spatiotemporal event that disrupts the structure and composition of an ecosystem affecting resource availability. We developed a Python package to automate search term selection, write search strategies, reduce bias and improve the efficient and effective selection of articles from academic databases and grey literature.

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Article Synopsis
  • Peatlands in high latitudes act as long-term carbon sinks due to the higher production of plant biomass during the growing season compared to carbon loss in the non-growing season.
  • As temperatures rise, particularly during the colder months, there are concerns that the decomposition of organic material in these soils will accelerate, leading to increased carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from northern peatlands.
  • Laboratory tests showed that boreal peat soils produced CO₂ at a higher rate with temperature increases compared to temperate soils, indicating that typical models may not accurately predict emissions, especially during freeze-thaw cycles.
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The growing demand for renewable, carbon-neutral materials and energy is leading to intensified forest land-use. The long-term ecological challenges associated with maintaining soil fertility in managed forests are not yet known, in part due to the complexity of soil microbial communities and the heterogeneity of forest soils. This study determined the long-term effects of timber harvesting, accompanied by varied organic matter (OM) removal, on bacterial and fungal soil populations in 11- to 17-year-old reforested coniferous plantations at 18 sites across North America.

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