Peat Profile Database

Peatlands cover approximately 12% of the Canadian landscape and play an important role in the carbon cycle through their centennial to millennial-scale storage of carbon under waterlogged and anoxic conditions. In recognizing the potential of these ecosystems as natural climate solutions and therefore the need to include them in national greenhouse gas inventories, the Canadian Model for Peatlands module (CaMP v. 2.0) was developed by the Canadian Forest Service. Model parameterization included compiling peat profiles across Canada to calibrate peat decomposition rates from different peatland types, to define typical bulk density profiles, and to describe the hydrological (i.e., water table) response of peatlands to climatic changes. A total of 1,217 sites were included in the dataset from published and unpublished sources. The CORESITES table contains site location and summary data for each profile, as well as an estimate of total carbon mass per unit area (megagrams C ha-1). Total carbon mass per unit area at each location was calculated using bulk density and carbon content through each profile. The PROFILES table contains data for depth (cm), bulk density (g cm-3), ash and carbon content (%), and material descriptions for contiguous samples through each peat profile. Data gaps for bulk density and C content were filled using interpolation, regression trees, and assigned values based on material description and/or soil classification to allow for the estimation of total carbon mass per unit area. A subset of the sites (N = 374) also have pH and pore water trace-elemental geochemistry data and are found in the WATER table. The REFERENCES table contains the full citation of each source of the data and is linked to each core location through the SOURCEDATA table. The LOOKUP table defines codes in the database that required more space than what was sufficient in the metadata tables. The data will be useful for future work on carbon stock mapping and ecosystem modelling.

Datasets available for download

• Metadata_ENPDF
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• CORESITESCSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• LOOKUPCSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• PROFILESCSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• REFERENCESCSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• SOURCEDATACSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource
• WATERCSV
  To Download

  • More information
  • Go to resource

• Canada
• Chemistry
• Ecosystems
• Nature and Environment
• Scientific research
• Soil
• Water
• ash content
• biogeochemistry
• bulk density
• carbon content
• peat chemistry
• peat profile database
• peat properties
• peatlands

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (54%)
• Maturity Level 2 (38%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 03:07 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 03:07 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.	Environment
Title Title for the Dataset.	Peat Profile Database
Description A description of the dataset.	Peatlands cover approximately 12% of the Canadian landscape and play an important role in the carbon cycle through their centennial to millennial-scale storage of carbon under waterlogged and anoxic conditions. In recognizing the potential of these ecosystems as natural climate solutions and therefore the need to include them in national greenhouse gas inventories, the Canadian Model for Peatlands module (CaMP v. 2.0) was developed by the Canadian Forest Service. Model parameterization included compiling peat profiles across Canada to calibrate peat decomposition rates from different peatland types, to define typical bulk density profiles, and to describe the hydrological (i.e., water table) response of peatlands to climatic changes. A total of 1,217 sites were included in the dataset from published and unpublished sources. The CORESITES table contains site location and summary data for each profile, as well as an estimate of total carbon mass per unit area (megagrams C ha-1). Total carbon mass per unit area at each location was calculated using bulk density and carbon content through each profile. The PROFILES table contains data for depth (cm), bulk density (g cm-3), ash and carbon content (%), and material descriptions for contiguous samples through each peat profile. Data gaps for bulk density and C content were filled using interpolation, regression trees, and assigned values based on material description and/or soil classification to allow for the estimation of total carbon mass per unit area. A subset of the sites (N = 374) also have pH and pore water trace-elemental geochemistry data and are found in the WATER table. The REFERENCES table contains the full citation of each source of the data and is linked to each core location through the SOURCEDATA table. The LOOKUP table defines codes in the database that required more space than what was sufficient in the metadata tables. The data will be useful for future work on carbon stock mapping and ecosystem modelling.
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Canada Chemistry Ecosystems Nature and Environment Scientific research Soil Water ash content biogeochemistry bulk density carbon content peat chemistry peat profile database peat properties peatlands
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2024-05-21
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/e287b0dd-8b07-435b-8a76-0c7ec84ac228
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Natural Resources Canada | Ressources naturelles Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?	Government of Canada;Natural Resources Canada;CFS/GLFC/FED, [email protected]
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	[email protected]
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

Please login or register to comment.