The distribution and amount of carbon in the largest peatland complex in Amazonia

By F. C. Draper, K. Roucoux, I. Lawson, Edward T. A. Mitchard, E. H. Honorio Coronado, O. Lähteenoja, Luis A. Torres Montenegro, Elvis H. Valderrama Sandoval, Ricardo Zárate, Timothy R. Baker. 2014

220 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Peatlands in Amazonian Peru are known to store large quantities of carbon, but there is high uncertainty in the spatial extent and total carbon stocks of these ecosystems. Here, we use a multi-sensor (Landsat, ALOS PALSAR and SRTM) remote sensing approach, together with field data including 24 forest census plots and 218 peat thickness measurements, to map the distribution of peatland vegetation types and calculate the combined above- and below-ground carbon stock of peatland ecosystems in the Pastaza-Marañon foreland basin in Peru. We find that peatlands cover 35 600 ± 2133 km2 and contain 3.14 (0.44–8.15) Pg C. Variation in peat thickness and bulk density are the most important sources of uncertainty in these values. One particular ecosystem type, peatland pole forest, is found to be the most carbon-dense ecosystem yet identified in Amazonia (1391 ± 710 Mg C ha−1). The novel approach of combining optical and radar remote sensing with above- and below-ground carbon inventories is recommended for developing regional carbon estimates for tropical peatlands globally. Finally, we suggest that Amazonian peatlands should be a priority for research and conservation before the developing regional infrastructure causes an acceleration in the exploitation and degradation of these ecosystems.

Subfields: Ecology, Environmental Engineering, Global and Planetary Change

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a892100851eb4f90d1d07d22e3686c2f46e2969e

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In Ecology

1. C. Koven
2. Philippe Ciais
3. D. Beerling

In Environmental Engineering

1. C. Koven
2. B. Poulter
3. C. Peng

In Global and Planetary Change

1. C. Koven
2. T. Kleinen
3. F. Joos
4. B. Poulter
5. Philippe Ciais
6. V. Arora
7. Chris D. Jones
8. D. Beerling

Citations in the corpus

• Global wetland contribution to 2000–2012 atmospheric methane growth rate dynamics (2017, result): “Combining SWAMPS and GLWD led to wetland area estimates consistent with more detailed regional estimates for Amazonia (Wilson et al 2007, Draper et al 2014, Hess et al 2015), southeast Asia (Hooijer et al 2010), and high-latitude systems, such as the Western Siberia Lowlands (Bohn et al 2015, Zhang…”
• A Review of Wetland Remote Sensing (2017, methodology): “[135] used remote sensing images together with field survey data to evaluate the carbon stock of peatland in Amazonia.”