Our 2026 fire season was quiet, and just like the rapid transition from winter to summer (bypassing spring) in much Canada, our fire season went from quiet to crazy full on. Rapid increase in area burned (and smoke) from fires in the NWT and QC and more recently ON. See hot spot graph below

At #biogeomon a collaegue called our 2015 hydrological feedbacks paper a peatlands classic. So that got me thinking what dozen or so papers would be on the 'must read' for #peatland researchers. I'll start with one of my faves. @andybairdj.bsky.social Belyea and Baird, 2006 (Ecol. Mongr.)

A third of a century ago I did my PhD research at SLU in Umeå on the carbon balance of a poor fen. So there was lots of emotions attending #biogeomon last week for my visit first to SLU Forest Sciences since 1994. Highlight of the week was visiting #KrycklanCatchment for the first time #peatlands

Happy #WorldPeatlandsDay!

Earlier this week I gave a seminar on #peatland #wildfire and led a workshop on peatland #ecohydrology at the SLU Dept. of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment in Uppsala. Six! #NobelPeatPrize laureates (incl the legendary Håkan Rydin) attended. We had great peaty discussions and I learned so much.

Very excited to announce that my first PhD research paper is out! 🎉 We think shallow #peatlands represent #ClimateChange "sentinels" for deeper peats, but we don't know much about their #evapotranspiration (ET) dynamics 🧵 doi.org/10.1002/hyp.70558 @nobel-water.bsky.social #PeatPaper #OpenAccess

Persistent Evapotranspiration in a Shallow Boreal Shield Peatland Despite Summer Drought: Implications for Ecohydrological Resilience

We examine energy balance and evapotranspiration dynamics in a shallow peatland as an analogue for projected climate change impacts in deeper peatlands. Across nine growing seasons, we document simil...

doi.org

Hey #EGU26! Got Peat? The McMaster Ecohydrology Lab has a talk and poster in the HS10.3 Peatland hydrology session on Friday. #PeatSky #peatlands #ecohydrology #resilience #earlywarningsignals Join us for a discussion on early warning signals in peatland ecosystems at poster A.64

I’m visiting the SLU Dept. of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment in Uppsala today and saw this on a bookshelf. The dept is home to our 2024 and 2025 #NobelPeatPrize laureates. #peatland

That feeling when your nerdy ecohydrology knowledge of both Newtonian mechanics and peatland vegetation combine to solve the Saturday NYT connections puzzle in record time 🤓

A new peat paper in @mdpiopenaccess.bsky.social enaccess.bsky.social Problem is, it's chock-full of AI generated references, including several papers with my name on that don't exist. How did the reviewers not spot this? www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/16...

Celebrating Line Rochefort, named to the 2026 Women Changemakers in the World of Wetlands At 16, she taught herself botany after being excluded from science camps for boys only. Today, she’s a global pioneer in #peatland #restoration and continues to champion women in science. shorturl.at/n67Nb

Line Rochefort, Canada | The Convention on Wetlands

Biography At 16, Dr Rochefort wanted to be a biologist. But it was 1977 – the natural sciences camps were boys-only. That did not stop her. She took the plant identification guide that one camper gave...

shorturl.at

Make moss, not war! 💚

New paper! We took our peatland moss expertise and methods and applied it to fill and spill water storage dynamics to examine the hydrological controls on rock barrens moss and lichen mat growth. Mat NPP increases with increasing bedrock depression storage. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

🚨Funded #PhD opp🚨 in my lab, co supervised by Vincent Maire at Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Linking above-and belowground plant #phenology to carbon cycling in #peatlands You can see full advert (in english/french) here: wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com/Opportunitie... Please share!

🚨 #PhD opportunity 🚨 Disturbance Impacts on swamp and forested peatlands in southern Québec This project will quantify how disturbances affect carbon cycling and hydrology in swamp and forested peatlands of southern Québec More info here: wetlandresilienceresearchgroup.com/Opportunitie...

New paper led by Rachel Fallas & Chantel Markle with 6 winters of @nobel-water.bsky.social data Micrometeorological variability and climate change affect snake overwintering habitat resilience www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Rattlesnakes overwinter in east Georgian Bay #peatland hummocks

Happy #WorldWetlandsDay! Photo: “After the Squalls” (Peatland 234 at the NOBEL Water and Carbon Observatory @nobel-water.bsky.social) www.worldwetlandsday.org

In 2010 the McMaster Ecohydrology Lab started research in Nobel @nobel-water.bsky.social and every year since have awarded the #NobelPeatPrize for the top #peatland paper of the year. * * While “unpresidented”, in case he tries, the #NobelPeatPrize rules are clear. The award is non transferable.

Fun day at the annual McMaster Ecohydrology Lab "Peat Retreat" at @nobel-water.bsky.social #peatlands #ecohydrology

A member of the public took a photo of the #peatland at Castell Nos in Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 every Sunday this year and even sent me this video he made! I really love how people have embraced #PeatColours across the world

Annual Christmas GPS map art with Emma! Santa Gnome / Tomtenisse

McMaster University is inviting top-tier researchers currently working abroad to join one of the world's leading research institutions through the prestigious Canada Impact+Research Chairs program. 1/n research.mcmaster.ca/home/support...

Canada Impact+ Research Chairs Nominees - Research & Innovation

[...]Read More...

research.mcmaster.ca

New paper out in Science Advances today on A guide to assessing the impacts of climate change on landscape fire. There are thousands of papers on fire and climate change, and this paper discusses how fire, its drivers, and its impacts are modeled. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

I'm very excited to share the latest paper from the McMaster Ecohydrology Lab. A whole lab effort where we expand our discussion on Hydrological Feedbacks in Northern Peatlands to discuss how peat depth influences the strength of key feedbacks and peatland resilience. Check it out in Ecohydrology!

Mike Waddington 🇨🇦@peatofmind.bsky.social · 8mo ago

A decade ago, we published our highly cited "Hydrological Feedbacks in Northern Peatlands" paper in Ecohydrology. Today the sequel just dropped! "Hydrological Feedbacks in Northern Peatlands 2: Peat Depth as a Control on Peatland Resilience" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 1/3

Excited to announce that our latest #SurvivalOfTheDeepest paper was just published! Read more about it here ⬇️

Mike Waddington 🇨🇦@peatofmind.bsky.social · 8mo ago

A decade ago, we published our highly cited "Hydrological Feedbacks in Northern Peatlands" paper in Ecohydrology. Today the sequel just dropped! "Hydrological Feedbacks in Northern Peatlands 2: Peat Depth as a Control on Peatland Resilience" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 1/3

A decade ago, we published our highly cited "Hydrological Feedbacks in Northern Peatlands" paper in Ecohydrology. Today the sequel just dropped! "Hydrological Feedbacks in Northern Peatlands 2: Peat Depth as a Control on Peatland Resilience" onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 1/3

On behalf of the McMaster Ecohydrology Lab I'm happy to announce the winner of the 2025 #NobelPeatPrize for top Intl #PeatPaper Congrats to: Nijp et al. "Ecohydrological feedbacks increase water storage, streamflow, and resilience of natural peatlands" Journal of Hydrology #Peatlands

I'm recruiting a #PhDstudent ! Deadline Feb 10th! Explore how forest management shapes peatlands, riparian zones, streams and the #biodiversity that depends on them. www.slu.se/en/about-slu...

Excited to share that our research group's latest "Survival of the Deepest" paper has been accepted! We outline how strengths of several ecohydrological feedbacks are likely different between #peatlands of different depths, leading to increased vulnerability of shallow systems.

Mike Waddington 🇨🇦@peatofmind.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Winner of the 2025 #NobelPeatPrize for top McMaster peat paper is Furukawa et al. accepted earlier today in Ecohydrology! Almost four years to put this together. A complete lab group effort! Abstract attached. #SurvivalOfTheDeepest The #NobelPeatPrize (International) will be announced Dec. 11th