A direct approach to quantifying organic matter lost as a result of peatland wildfire

Abstract

We describe a direct approach to quantifying the amount of organic matter consumed in peatlands during a single fire event, based on differences in ash concentrations between burned peat at the surface of peat cores and underlying unburned peat. We collected six peat cores at each of two continental bog and two permafrost bog sites, 3 months after a March 1999 wildfire. Results suggest high within-site variation in the amount of organic matter burned, with no significant differences between the four peatland sites or between continental and permafrost bogs. Averaged across all sites, 2.2 ± 0.5 kg C·m^–2 (mean ± SE, n = 24) of organic matter was consumed as a result of this single fire, a value consistent with those in the literature.