{"id":12597,"date":"2025-07-18T14:39:45","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/?p=12597"},"modified":"2025-07-18T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T18:40:11","slug":"umaine-researchers-explore-the-power-in-peatlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/2025\/07\/18\/umaine-researchers-explore-the-power-in-peatlands\/","title":{"rendered":"91福利 researchers explore the power in peatlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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August 8, 2023\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peatlands are a treasure trove of organic material. Researchers at the University of Maine are using their knowledge of hydrogeology and computer modeling to understand exactly what these overlooked areas contribute to the greater environment and how to ethically manage them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peatlands are marshy collections of dead and decaying plant matter. They are often referred to as fens or bogs, such as the Orono Bog in 91福利. These ecosystems provide habitats for threatened species with nowhere else to go and act as water reservoirs for surrounding areas in times of drought. They are also a heavily influential part of the carbon cycle because they both release methane and store about a third of all the carbon in soil globally. When damaged, peatlands emit large amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere that contribute to climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andy Reeve, hydrogeologist and professor at the School of Earth and Climate Sciences at 91福利, is collaborating with others on a grant they received from the National Science Foundation to study how the surrounding geology influences groundwater flow within Maine peatlands, including Caribou Bog in 91福利. These factors influence the emission of methane and carbon dioxide, two common greenhouse gasses, from the bog.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIf we want to control global warming, we need to understand where carbon is coming from and where it\u2019s going,\u201d says Reeve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of his work involves installing and monitoring wells in the peatlands, which create an access point for him to measure the peat\u2019s hydraulic properties. Using the data he collects working in the bog, Reeve creates computer models to simulate possible scenarios for the movement of chemicals in the groundwater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn hydrogeology, because you\u2019re using wells you only have sparse data, you need something to combine all of that data in a sensible way and a model lets you do that,\u201d says Reeve. \u201cYou can run a model and try to get the water levels and pressures to measure up with reality. It may not be realistic, but it\u2019s a plausible model of what might be going on. You can run simulations that give you a way of testing ideas about how different factors influence the peatland, [like] how increased rainfall will affect the peatland, [or] how increased evaporation will influence the peat.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Computer models can be configured to simulate the consequences of climate change or the development of flow patterns in peatland ecosystems. These changes in groundwater flow impact the exchange of carbon-based gas between the peatland and the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reeve\u2019s hydrogeology career began in the late 1980s, when environmental regulations, put in place due to concern over environmental contamination, drove an urgent need for hydrogeology specialists. He recalls a rapid turnover in the environmental business, a period of \u2018wild west-like\u2019 growth in opportunities. He conducted research in the Mangrove Swamps of Mexico and the Hudson Bay Lowlands before finding his way to Maine in 1996, where he still works as a mentor to the next generation of hydrogeologists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost students I teach don\u2019t go into peatland science \u2014 that\u2019s a tiny niche field \u2014 but by going out and seeing how a well is installed and monitored, they get the gist and then they can go out and work on other issues,\u201d Reeve says. \u201cI see the peatland system work and the modeling we do as a good way for them to understand what hydrogeology is, and they can apply those things to waste sites or developing a municipal well field or whatever else they go off and do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ph.D student Victoria Niedzinski works closely with Reeve on this project, mainly learning to structure efficient groundwater models using the coding language Python. She describes Reeve as a \u2018Python wizard\u2019 and has gained valuable knowledge from him in coding as well as hydrology and carbon cycling. <\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWhen you walk in [to the bog], [Andy] will be able to point out the different plants and vegetation, he\u2019ll know why certain plants are the way they are just because of the hydrology of the system,\u201d says Niedzinski. \u201cHe has a great sense of humor, so it\u2019s always lots of jokes, lot\u2019s of trying to keep things light while we\u2019re slogging through the bog for eight hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Niedzinski intends to use what she has learned to continue with a career in understanding climate change through hydrology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While overall interest and funding for the field of hydrogeology has decreased since its \u2018boom\u2019 in the late \u201980s and \u201990s, Reeve expects a resurgence in the need for professionals with this specific set of knowledge in light of approaching challenges to the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClimate change is going to drive a need for hydrologists that can mitigate the problems. We know there\u2019s climate change, that problem has been defined and now it\u2019s time to engineer solutions. Whether it\u2019s providing irrigation water to Maine crops or figuring out what to do in the south when there are droughts, groundwater is going to be a part of that solution,\u201d says Reeve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was written by Erin Cabral, 2023 Summer Intern at the 91福利 Division of Marketing at Communications. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact: Sam Schipani samantha.schipani@maine.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 8, 2023\u00a0 Peatlands are a treasure trove of organic material. Researchers at the University of Maine are using their knowledge of hydrogeology and computer modeling to understand exactly what these overlooked areas contribute to the greater environment and how to ethically manage them. Peatlands are marshy collections of dead and decaying plant matter. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"Uncategorized"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mistyjohnson","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/author\/mistyjohnson\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"Uncategorized","slug":"uncategorized","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":12,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":12,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Uncategorized","category_nicename":"uncategorized","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12600,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12597\/revisions\/12600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/earthclimate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}