PEAT Data

Databases for peatland science

This is a collection of peatland data initiatives. Presented databases specifically target researchers in need of peatland data like soil, carbon, greenhouse gas, and vegetation data. 

If you are you aware of other projects that aim to coordinate large peatland related datasets from across the world, please let us know in an eMail or on Twitter!

Data bases

Check out these useful databases for peatland related science and find some additional data for your current research project or graduate work

General Peat Data

Dryad

The Dryad Digital Repository is a curated resource that makes research data discoverable, freely reusable, and citable. Dryad provides a general-purpose home for a wide diversity of data types. Dryad’s vision is to promote a world where research data is openly available, integrated with the scholarly literature, and routinely re-used to create knowledge. It is flexible about data format, while encouraging the use and further development of research community standards. Just use the search bar to access peat-related datasets.

Find out more on the database website: Dryad

Environmental Information Data Centre

Part of the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) Environmental Data Service, the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) is hosted by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH). They manage nationally-important datasets concerned with the terrestrial and freshwater sciences. You can find peat(land) data by using the search function here.

Find out more on the database website: Environmental Information Data Centre

Global Peatland Database

A project of the International Mire Conservation Group (IMCG) located and maintained at the Greifswald Mire Centre (Germany). The GPD collects and integrates data on location, extent and drainage status of peatlands and organic soils worldwide and for 268 individual countries and regions. The database contains analogue and GIS maps, reports, observations, pictures, and is supported by the Peatland and Nature Conservation International Library PeNCIL. The GPD regularly produces integrative analyses including biennial worldwide overviews on peatland status and emissions and provides science-based, policy-relevant spatial information for: 

  • climate change mitigation and adaptation
  • biodiversity conservation and restoration
  • sustainable land use planning

Find out more on the database website: Global Peatland Database

Holocene Perspective on Peatland Biogeochemistry

This peatland database facilitates data accessibility and encourages collaborative work within the peatland scientific community. Understanding how biogeochemical processes and ecosystem dynamics respond to hydrological and climatological changes is crucial in the current context of global change. Currently, our data repository includes 268 peat core records from 215 sites located in the northern hemisphere. This valuable information can help resolve fundamental questions related to past, present, and future carbon and nutrient cycling in peatlands.

Find out more on the database website: Holocene Perspective on Peatland Biogeochemistry

International Soil Carbon Network

A science-based network that facilitates data sharing, assembles databases, identifies gaps in data coverage, and enables spatially explicit assessments of soil carbon in context of landscape, climate, land use, and biotic variables. Now in its third generation, the ISCN database includes data for over 430,000 individual soil layers from over 71,000 profiles worldwide. The data are presented by several mechanisms:

  • Third generation data are separated into profile- and layer-level data products, available for download only in Excel format
  • A map-based data access feature allows the user to specify a geographic extent and select variables to include in a customized data download

Find out more on the database website: International Soil Carbon Network

Mer Bleue Supersite Data Portal

As part of the mission of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, and with funding from the European Space Agency, this data portal will host remote sensing imagery and auxiliary datasets collected over the Canadian peatland Mer Bleue, as well as data and publications from other research at the site. Coming soon – email McGill University MSc student Gillian Rowan to be informed about its release.

Find out more on the database website: Mer Bleue Supersite Data Portal

SPRUCE Public Products

Available for download only, these products cover Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Changing Environments (SPRUCE). Included are datasets from warming experiments, water levels, respiration data, etc. 

Find out more on the database website: SPRUCE Public Products

Peat Data Hub

A network of scientists who aim to provide a global perspective on peatland processes by combining datasets from around the world as part of a large database of monitoring sites. The scope of PeatDataHub is broad and will incorporate a wide range of peatland measurements, beginning with site metadata and water table depth. Researchers can decide on the level of access to their datasets when they contribute to this database. Information that can currently be uploaded in a standardized format includes:

  • Water table data from individual wells within sites
  • Eyes on the bog monitoring data
  • Photographs, including 360 images
  • Ancillary data (papers, maps, etc.)
  • Coming soon: rainfall data

Find out more on the database website: PeatDataHub

Peatlands of Canada Database

Most recently published by C. Tarnocai, I.M. Kettles and B.S. Lacelle in 2011, this database contains maps showing soil organic carbon mass and soil organic carbon content in Canadian peatlands. Website maintained by Natural Resources Canada.

Find out more on the database website: Peatlands of Canada Database

Research Data Leeds Repository

Research Data Leeds is the institutional research data repository for the University of Leeds. The service aims to facilitate data discovery and data sharing. Search the repository to find data from various peat-y research projects. Please note, Research Data Leeds launched in 2015 and is not a comprehensive representation of data outputs from the University of Leeds.

Find out more on the database website: Research Data Leeds Repository

SWAMP Database

SWAMP (The Sustainable Wetlands Adaptation and Mitigation Program) has generated a significant body of knowledge that is directly relevant to policymakers and practitioners around the world. This includes cutting edge research and datasets related to carbon dynamics in mangrove and peatland ecosystems across 27 tropical countries. The SWAMP database serves as a repository for all scientific data and metadata generated by SWAMP researchers, students, and partners. The database is designed to offer a standardized and structured platform for storing research results originating from SWAMP activities. It is maintained by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the USDA Forest Service (USFS) and is composed of five general sections as described in the IPCC Guidelines for carbon stock and flux pools, namely: spatial, vegetation, soil, necromass, and GHG datasets.

Find out more on the database website: SWAMP Database

Wetland database for the western boreal, subarctic, and arctic regions of Canada

Published by S.C. Zoltai, R.M. Siltanen and J.D. Johnson in 2000, this wetland database maintained by the Canadian Forest Service, Natural Resources Canada, was initially intended to determine the environmental sensitivity of permafrost peatlands to anthropogenic disturbance and, later, evaluate the rate of peat accumulation and hence the rate of carbon sequestration in Canadian wetlands.

The database contains

  • wetland locations
  • wetland classification
  • physical and chemical peat data
  • vegetation data

Details of collection and analytical methods are given. Over 425 wetland sites were investigated throughout western and northern Canada between 1970 and 1989, of which 411 sites, with 626 described, cored, and sampled wetland components, currently appear in the database. 

Find out more on the database website: Canadian Forest Service – Natural Resources Canada

Zenodo

Built and operated by CERN and OpenAIRE, this database aims to ensure that everyone can join in open science. Various peat datasets are included. 

Find out more on the database website: Zenodo

Paleo Data

Neotoma Paleoecology Database

An online hub for data, research, education, and discussion about paleoenvironments. The primary philosophy behind Neotoma is data sharing so that users can easily:

  • Discover: find information efficiently by searching the database on spatial, temporal and metedata criteria.
  • Explore: interactively browse and visualize live data and metadata
  • Share: get data and information in a variety of useful formats (e.g., downloads, reports, graphics)

Neotoma’s centralized structure facilitates interdisciplinary, multiproxy analyses and common tool development; discipline-specific data can also be easily accessed. Data currently include North American Pollen (NAPD) and fossil mammals (FAUNMAP).  Other proxies (plant macrofossils, beetles, ostracodes, diatoms, etc.) and geographic areas (Europe, Latin America, etc.) will be added in the near future.  Data are derived from sites from the last 5 million years. 

Find out more on the database website: Neotoma Paleoecology Database

Pangaea

Published by Earth and Environmental Science, this site includes peat data such as

  • paleoecology
  • geochemistry
  • age-depth
  • carbon
  • some proxy data

The map is searchable by location and type of data.  Submitting data to PANGAEA is easy; all you need is your data, accompanying metadata, and the willingness to open up your data to the world. Upon submission, experienced data curators will contact you to help with the process.

Find out more on the database website: Pangaea

Flux Data

Global Soil Respiration Database

This is an open-source database of published studies about soil surface CO2 flux (soil respiration) in the field, intended to serve as a resource for scientific analysis. The data, including peat soil data as well, is provided to scientific researchers in a dynamic database that can constantly grow and be modified according to the needs of its community. There are multiple ways to contribute data. Instructions are provided with the downloaded material.

Find out more on the database website: Global Soil Respiration Database

Flux net

Over the past 20 years, there have been several data synthesis activities initiated by the FLUXNET research community. The most recent FLUXNET dataset produced is the FLUXNET2015 Dataset, which includes over 1.500 site-years of data from 212 sites. Included in these data are eddy covariance flux data from several peatland sites.  Screen sites belonging to the Permanent Wetlands (WET) category to find peatland data.

Similarly, the FLUXNET-CH4 Community Product was released in 2020. Led by the Global Carbon Project in close partnership with AmeriFlux and EuroFlux, the synthesis activity resulted in a global database of eddy covariance methane flux measurements.

Find out more on the database website: FLUXNET

ICOS Data Portal

This portal provides observational data and elaborated products on greenhouse gases, mainly flux and biomet data from eddy covariance stations in Europe. Data sets can be visualised and fully/partially downloaded. Several peatland sites are included in the ICOS ecosystem stations network:

Find out more on the database website: ICOS Data Portal

Vegetation Data

sPLotOpen

This dataset includes an environmentally balanced, open-access, global dataset of vegetation plots. sPlotOpen contains three partially overlapping resampled datasets (approximately 50.000 plots each), to be used as replicates in global analyses. Data include

  • geographical location
  • date
  • plot size
  • biome
  • elevation
  • slope
  • aspect
  • vegetation type
  • naturalness
  • coverage of various vegetation layers
  • source dataset

Plot-level data also include community-weighted means and variances of 18 plant functional traits from the TRY Plant Trait Database. Contains data from the European Mire Vegetation Database amongst other wetland data. Find a more detailed description here.

Find out more on the database website: sPlotOpen

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