Peatland groundwater level in the Indonesian maritime continent as an alert for El Niño and moderate positive Indian Ocean dipole events.

In general, it is known that extreme climatic conditions such as El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD+) cause prolonged drought in Indonesia's tropical peatlands so that groundwater levels (GWL) drop and peat is prone to fire. However, 27 years of GWL measurements in Central Kalimantan peat forests show the opposite condition, where the lowest GWL occurs several weeks before El Niño and after IOD+ reaches its peaks. We show that the dropped sea surface temperature anomaly induced by anomalously easterly winds along the southern Java-Sumatra occurs several weeks before the GWL drop to the lowest value.

Weather radar detection of planetary boundary layer and smoke layer top of peatland fire in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

During the dry period of August-October 2015, a C-band Doppler weather radar of the BMKG station in a fire-prone peatland area, Palangka Raya, detected echoes with reflectivity values between - 19 and + 34 dBZ at a height below 2-3 km and a slant range of 100 km. The MERRA-2/NASA atmospheric reanalysis database is used to obtain the vertical profiles of refractive index and equivalent potential temperature of the air. The temporal variation of the radar image is due to the tropical diurnal cycle of planetary boundary layer formation, which is consistent with the results of the database analysis.

Ground-based measurements of column-averaged carbon dioxide molar mixing ratios in a peatland fire-prone area of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Tropical peatlands in Indonesia have been disturbed over decades and are a source of carbon dioxide (CO) into the atmosphere by peat respiration and peatland fire. With a portable solar spectrometer, we have performed measurements of column-averaged CO dry-air molar mixing ratios, XCO, in Palangka Raya, Indonesia, and quantify the emission dynamics of the peatland with use of the data for weather, fire hotspot, ground water table, local airport operation visibility and weather radar images. Total emission of CO from surface and underground peat fires as well as from peatland ecosystem is evaluated by day-to-day variability of XCO.

The effect of remnant forest on insect successional response in tropical fire-impacted peatland: A bi-taxa comparison.

Fire has become a common feature in tropical drained peatlands, and it may have detrimental impacts on the overall biodiversity of the forest ecosystem. We investigated the effect of fire on termite and ant assemblages and the importance of remnant forest in restoring species diversity in fire-impacted tropical peat swamp forests. The species loss of both termites and ants was as high as 50% in some fire-impacted peats compared to remnant forests, but in most cases the species richness for termites and ants was statistically equal along the land uses surveyed.

The Impact of Tropical Peat Fire on Termite Assemblage in Sumatra, Indonesia: Reduced Complexity of Community Structure and Survival Strategies.

Tropical peat swamp forests in Southeast Asia account for approximately 72% of global peatland. However, extensive forest exploitation following peat drainage for agricultural expansion has been leading to catastrophic peat fires. In this study, we compared the termite assemblage in burnt and unburnt peats in Sumatra, Indonesia.