March 2024 - 10

DUETS | BY PETER KONJOIAN AND JAMES ALTLAND
Peat industry confusion: The
blurring of two separate issues
Joining me to discuss peat moss is
James Altland, research leader for the
Application Technology Unit of the
USDA Agricultural Research Service in
Wooster, Ohio.
James earned his undergraduate
degree in 1995 at Penn State
University in horticulture. His
graduate education was completed
in 2002 at Auburn University in plant
nutrition. He spent the first five years
of his career as a faculty member in
Oregon State University's Department
of Horticulture. His career with
the USDA began in 2007 where he
supervises a team of 11 scientists
and 25 support staff.
Peter: Thank you for taking time to
join me, James. Let's start with your
decision to focus on peat moss as a
substrate component. I heard you
speak at a 2023 workshop where you
presented a view of the peat industry
that is more optimistic than what
we hear routinely. Tell us about your
USDA program.
James: My research program
focuses on container substrates
and how they affect plant growth. I
started working with substrates at
Oregon State University, focusing
primarily on chemical and physical
properties. Recently, I started
studying the biological properties,
including how the microbiome
specific to these substrates affects
plant health.
New post doctoral research will
study how substrates decompose
in containers. Once we understand
the mechanisms of decomposition
more thoroughly and quantitatively,
we will try to link that to the
microbiome to understand how those
two properties are related. Finally,
I have recently taken an interest in
substrate sustainability. The use and
sustainability of peat in North America
is of particular interest to me.
Peter: The evolution of your work
mirrors a project I've been working
on for 10 years. I've been researching
biological water management -
algae and biofilm control. Part of the
challenge is learning what we don't
understand in order to successfully
apply what we do. I'm sure exploring
the biological realm and connecting
that to the microbiome is exciting.
Let's talk about your work with
peat specifically.
James: I've been working with
peat since I started working on
substrates 20 years ago. While most
of it has been conducted on barkbased
substrates for outdoor grown
nursery crops, peat as an important
component of nursery substrates has
always been a necessary and integral
part of that research.
I began talking about the
sustainability of peat. We've all
heard the rumblings about banning
or limiting peat use in Europe over
sustainability issues. Much of this
attention in Europe was due to our
understanding that peat bogs are
important global carbon sinks, greatly
impact atmospheric carbon levels and
thus global warming. That, coupled
with the level of peat bog degradation
in Europe, made them easy targets
for regulations and outright banning.
That sentiment has recently
migrated across the pond to the
U.S. In North America, almost all
the peat comes from Canada and is
exported and used in the U.S. There
are 294 million acres of peatlands in
Canada. That's almost three times
the land area of California. Of that
area, approximately 43,500 acres
are currently used for peat extraction
(with another 34,500 acres having
been harvested in the past) which,
to carry the analogy further, could fit
within Fresno City limits. Only about
0.03% of the peatlands in Canada
are or ever have been used for
horticultural peat.
There is concern that opening peat
bogs for peat extraction will result in
CO2
at 1.5 tons of CO2
loss from these bogs
per hectare per
loss to the atmosphere, making
global warming even worse. Research
by Hongxing He at McGill University
measured CO2
10
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