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Intact and managed peatland soils as a source and sink of GHGs from 1850 to 2100

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journal contribution
posted on 2020-03-10, 16:03 authored by Jens Leifeld, Chloe Wust-Galley, Susan Page
Land-use change disturbs the function of peatland as a natural carbon sink and triggers high GHG emissions1. Nevertheless, historical trends and future trajectories of GHG budgets from soil do not explicitly include peatlands2,3. Here, we provide an estimate of the past and future role of global peatlands as either a source or sink of GHGs based on scenario timelines of land conversion. Between 1850 and 2015, temperate and boreal regions lost 26.7 million ha, and tropical regions 24.7 million ha, of natural peatland. By 2100, peatland conversion in tropical regions might increase to 36.3 million ha. Cumulative emissions from drained sites reached 80 ± 20 PgCO2e in 2015 and will add up to 249 ± 38 Pg by 2100. At the same time, the number of intact sites accumulating peat will decline. In 1960 the global peatland biome turned from a net sink into a net source of soil-derived GHGs. Annual back-conversion of most of the drained area would render peatlands GHG neutral, whereas emissions from peatland may comprise 12–41% of the GHG emission budget for keeping global warming below +1.5 to +2 °C without rehabilitation.

History

Citation

Nature Climate Change volume 9, pages 945–947(2019

Author affiliation

School of Geography, Geology and the Environment

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Published in

Nature Climate Change

Volume

9

Issue

12

Pagination

945 - 947

Publisher

Nature Research

issn

1758-678X

eissn

1758-6798

Acceptance date

2019-09-27

Copyright date

2019

Available date

2019-11-11

Publisher version

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0615-5

Language

English