Peat fires and the unknown risk of legacy metal and metalloid pollution

Introduction. Peatlands have persisted for millennia, acting as-important sinks of atmospheric carbon (Yu 2012) and regionally-important role of pollutants, such as lead, arsenic, or mercury (toxic metals and metalloids, TMMs) (Bindler2006). The role peatlands play in atmospheric carbon sequestration often overshadows their role in pollutants despite, for example, peat mercury rates increasing 60–130× relative to-industrial rates (Bindler 2006). Peatlands sustain carbon and TMM sink persistence through a of ecohydrological feedbacks and plant traits(Souter and Watmough 2016, McCarter et al 2020)., the interaction of climate change, land-use and wildfire are testing peatland resilience(Wilkinson et al 2023), potentially placing their longterm stores of recent and legacy carbon and TMMs the edge of catastrophic release.