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Peru is one of the richest peatland countries in the tropics. Its peatlands extend over all three of its regions, with a significant area in the Amazon. These peatlands provide key ecosystem services – storing immense amounts of carbon, uptaking carbon dioxide, nurturing unique biodiversity, regulating water at local and regional levels, and providing both livelihoods and cultural values for local people. The country’s peatlands have deteriorated through anthropogenic activities, including infrastructure construction and resource extraction (e.g. oil, minerals), and unsustainable uses or practices of varying intensity (e.g. overgrazing, peat extraction, palm felling, overhunting); such practices both threaten them and increase their vulnerability. Climate changes also compromise their stability. The Peruvian regulatory framework includes norms and instruments for the sustainable management of wetlands, but peatland-specific regulations are yet to be developed. Recent advances include the elaboration of a national definition for peatlands; however, peatlands are yet to be explicitly included in climate change strategies like REDD+ and NDCs. There is a critical lack of scientific research on Peruvian peatlands; they need to be mapped and inventoried, and their ecological properties and economic and social values characterized. If they are to be sustainably managed, it is also essential to identify and value the knowledges and practices of indigenous communities. The opportunities for the conservation and good management of these key ecosystems are many, including consolidation of mechanisms of payment for ecosystem services, implementation of sustainable resource management plans by the local population, expansion of protected natural areas, and recognition of communities’ tenure rights.
Key messagesIndonesia and Peru harbor some of the largest lowland tropical peatland areas. Indonesian peatlands are subject to much greater anthropogenic activity than Peru's resulting in high GHG and particulate emissions.We explored patterns of impact in both countries and compared predisposing factors. Impacts differ greatly among Indonesian regions and the Peruvian Amazon in the order: Sumatra > Kalimantan > Papua > Peru.All impacts, except fire, are positively related to population density.Current peatland integrity in Peru arises from a confluence of factors that has slowed development, with no absolute barriers protecting Peruvian peatlands from a similar fate to Indonesia's.If the goal is to maintain the integrity of Peruvian peatlands, government policies recognizing unique peatland functions and sensitivities will be necessary.
An interdisciplinary book tackling the challenges of managing peatlands and their ecosystem services in the face of climate change.
A thoroughly updated and accessible textbook featuring topical issues such as sea level rise, eutrophication, facilitation, restoration and conservation. This third edition is richly illustrated in colour, packed with examples from every major continent and wetland type, and features end-of-chapter questions to review and extend students' learning.
This book is an excellent resource for scientists, political decision makers, and students interested in the impact of peatlands on climate change and ecosystem function, containing a plethora of recent research results such as monitoring-sensing-modeling for carbon–water flux/storage, biodiversity and peatland management in tropical regions. It is estimated that more than 23 million hectares (62 %) of the total global tropical peatland area are located in Southeast Asia, in lowland or coastal areas of East Sumatra, Kalimantan, West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Brunei, Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak and Southeast Thailand. Tropical peatland has a vital carbon–water storage function and is host to a huge diversity of plant and animal species. Peatland ecosystems are extremely vulnerable to climate change and the impacts of human activities such as logging, drainage and conversion to agricultural land. In Southeast Asia, severe episodic droughts associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, in combination with over-drainage, forest degradation, and land-use changes, have caused widespread peatland fires and microbial peat oxidation. Indonesia's 20 Mha peatland area is estimated to include about 45–55 GtC of carbon stocks. As a result of land use and development, Indonesia is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases (2–3 Gtons carbon dioxide equivalent per year), 80 % of which is due to deforestation and peatland loss. Thus, tropical peatlands are key ecosystems in terms of the carbon–water cycle and climate change.
Amazonian forests comprise almost 10% of stored carbon (C) in the world's land ecosystems. This C is held both in above-ground biomass (AGB) and in the soil. AGB in an individual plant depends on plant size, often measured in trees as height (H) and diameter (D), and the density of plant tissues, often approximated in trees by wood density (WD). Soil C storage depends on the balance between inputs from AGB due to mortality and senescence and outputs due to decay and erosion. Peatlands, wetlands recently described in northern Peruvian Amazonia, show unusually high rates of soil C accumulation. For these habitats information on C budget contributions from peatland plants is unavailable. In this study I estimated AGB in various peatlands of northern Peruvian Amazonia, and asked why some of these peatlands store more AGB than others. I first set out to estimate the relative contribution of inter- and intra-specific variation to variation in AGB among individual peatland trees. I found that 80% of the variation in AGB among individual trees was due to inter-specific variation. Then I assessed the extent to which the three traits that determine AGB (i.e., D, H and WD) contribute to inter- and intra-specific variation in AGB among peatland trees. I found variation in D and the interaction between D and H contributed most to inter- and intra-specific variation in AGB among trees. Last, I estimated the extent to which variation in AGB among peatland locations was due to variation in species composition, stem density and intra-specific variation in AGB. I found that species composition and intra-specific variation, but not stem density, explained nearly equal amounts of variation in AGB among peatland locations. In summary, detailed knowledge of tree size can provide good estimates of species level biomass estimates in the peatlands of northern Peruvian Amazonia. Additionally, what species are present, as well as how their biomass varies (intra-specifically) from site to site drives AGB variation among peatland locations.
What is peat? Peat is a type of organic soil which is made up of partly decomposed vegetation and is formed over centuries in waterlogged conditions. Peat has been on our planet for around 360 million years. Some peatlands in existence today took more than 10,000 years to develop. Where is it found? Peat exists in a variety of climates around the world. From high altitudes to coastal areas and from tropical rainforests to permafrost regions towards the poles, where soil has been frozen year round for at least two years. The vast majority of peatlands can be found in colder climates, in temperate or boreal areas. Tropical countries with large stores of peat include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Peru. 68% of tropical peatlands are found in Southeast Asia.