Global and regional importance of the tropical peatland carbon pool

Susan Page (1) , John O'Neil Rieley (2) , Christopher Banks (1)

1 Department of Geography [Leicester]
2 School of Geography

Accurate inventory of tropical peatland is important in order to (a) determine the magnitude of the carbon pool; (b) estimate the scale of transfers of peat-derived greenhouse gases to the atmosphere resulting from land use change; and (c) support carbon emissions reduction policies. We review available information on tropical peatland area and peat thickness and calculate peat volume and carbon content in order to determine their best estimates and ranges of variation globally, regionally and nationally. Our best estimate of tropical peatland area is 439,238 km2 (~11% of global peatland area) of which 247,778 km2 (57%) is in Southeast Asia. We estimate the volume of tropical peat to be 1,756 Gm3 (~22-33% of global peat volume) with the highest share in Southeast Asia (77%). This new assessment reveals a larger tropical peatland carbon pool than previous estimates, with a best estimate of 88.5 Gt (range 81.5-91.8 Gt) equal to 17-19% of the global peat carbon pool. Of this, 68.5 Gt (77%) is in Southeast Asia. A single country, Indonesia, holds the largest share (57.4 Gt, 65%), followed by Malaysia (9.1 Gt, 10%). These data are used to provide revised estimates for Indonesian and Malaysian forest soil carbon pools of 77 Gt and 15 Gt, respectively, and total forest carbon pools (biomass plus soil) of 97 Gt and 19 Gt. Peat carbon comprises 60% of the total soil carbon pool in Malaysia and 74% in Indonesia. These results emphasise the prominent global and regional role played by the Southeast Asian peat carbon pool and the importance of including peat carbon in national and regional assessments of terrestrial carbon stocks. This information is essential given current interest in greenhouse gas emissions from developed and degraded peatlands and the need to predict future trends under the influence of land use and climate change.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Susan Page, John O'Neil Rieley, Christopher Banks. Global and regional importance of the tropical peatland carbon pool. Global Change Biology, 2010, 17 (2), pp.798. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02279.x⟩. ⟨hal-00599518⟩