Climatic indicators of peatland resilience: conclusions from Norway and Poland
Although direct human activity is often the greatest threat to peatlands, climate change can also transform them, even far away from human activity. In a new publication by a team from the Centre for Climate Research at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences and NINA (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research), we analyzed five natural peatlands representing four regions of Europe, from subarctic Scandinavia to the temperate climate of Poland, and examined how key climate indicators have changed over the last 70 years: precipitation totals and seasonality, air temperature, evapotranspiration, water balance, and the length of rainless periods.
The result is worrying: the direction of change in these indicators favors the loss or alteration of many peatlands. The strongest negative signals were recorded in the palsa-type peatland (Šuoššjávri) in northern Norway, and the lowest risk in peatlands in the more oceanic areas of the northern lowland peatland region. In all locations, a stepwise heterogeneity of the values of the indicators studied was found between 1986 and 1996. The results of the study provide a strong argument for the consistent protection of well-preserved peatlands in order to support their resilience in the face of progressive climate change.
Details and full results can be found in the article in Global Ecology and Conservation:
Kustina, R., Canchig, J., Lyngstad, A., Stachowicz, M., Grygoruk, M., 2025. Assessing climatic indicators of mire resilience along a subarctic-temperate gradient in the face of abrupt climate change: A study of selected Norwegian and Polish peatlands. Global Ecology and Conservation 63, e03901