Net greenhouse gas balance of fibre wood plantation on peat in Indonesia.

Tropical peatlands cycle and store large amounts of carbon in their soil and biomass. Climate and land-use change alters greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes of tropical peatlands, but the magnitude of these changes remains highly uncertain. Here we measure net ecosystem exchanges of carbon dioxide, methane and soil nitrous oxide fluxes between October 2016 and May 2022 from Acacia crassicarpa plantation, degraded forest and intact forest within the same peat landscape, representing land-cover-change trajectories in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Impact of forest plantation on methane emissions from tropical peatland.

Tropical peatlands are a known source of methane (CH ) to the atmosphere, but their contribution to atmospheric CH is poorly constrained. Since the 1980s, extensive areas of the peatlands in Southeast Asia have experienced land-cover change to smallholder agriculture and forest plantations. This land-cover change generally involves lowering of groundwater level (GWL), as well as modification of vegetation type, both of which potentially influence CH emissions.

Impacts of land use, restoration, and climate change on tropical peat carbon stocks in the twenty-first century: implications for climate mitigation.

The climate mitigation potential of tropical peatlands has gained increased attention as Southeast Asian peatlands are being deforested, drained and burned at very high rates, causing globally significant carbon dioxide (CO) emissions to the atmosphere. We used a process-based dynamic tropical peatland model to explore peat carbon (C) dynamics of several management scenarios within the context of simulated twenty-first century climate change. Simulations of all scenarios with land use, including restoration, indicated net C losses over the twenty-first century ranging from 10 to 100 % of pre-disturbance values.

Carbon accumulation of tropical peatlands over millennia: a modeling approach.

Tropical peatlands cover an estimated 440,000 km2 (~10% of global peatland area) and are significant in the global carbon cycle by storing about 40-90 Gt C in peat. Over the past several decades, tropical peatlands have experienced high rates of deforestation and conversion, which is often associated with lowering the water table and peat burning, releasing large amounts of carbon stored in peat to the atmosphere. We present the first model of long-term carbon accumulation in tropical peatlands by modifying the Holocene Peat Model (HPM), which has been successfully applied to northern temperate peatlands.