| 39886 |
Creator |
9afccdbe975e25965953e777bb4d6a5f |
| 39886 |
Creator |
ext-0c94e935e5dc845d354a2c20823fb058 |
| 39886 |
Creator |
ext-7e316459fc71b94ea673bafe6ed3bb19 |
| 39886 |
Creator |
ext-9ebb406fa95ca8032fdd43e64ed11ec9 |
| 39886 |
Date |
2013-12-09 |
| 39886 |
Is Part Of |
repository |
| 39886 |
abstract |
Tropical peatlands contain one of the largest pools of terrestrial organic carbon,
amounting to about 89,000 teragrams. Approximately 65% of this carbon store is in
Indonesia, where extensive anthropogenic degradation in the form of deforestation,
drainage and associated fire is converting it into a globally significant source of
atmospheric carbon dioxide. Unlike boreal and temperate forests and higher-latitude
wetlands, however, the loss of fluvial organic carbon from tropical peats has yet
to be fully quantified. Here, we present the first data from intact and degraded peat
swamp forest (PSF) catchments in Central Kalimantan, Borneo, that indicate a doubling
of fluvial organic carbon losses from tropical peatlands following deforestation and
drainage. Through carbon-14 dating of dissolved organic carbon (DO<sup>14</sup>C),
we find that leaching of DOC from intact PSF is derived mainly from recent primary
production. In contrast, DOC from disturbed PSF consists mostly of much older carbon
from deep within the peat column. When we include this fluvial carbon loss, which
is often ignored in peatland carbon budgets, we find that it increases the estimate
of total carbon lost from the disturbed peatlands in our study by 22%. We further
estimate that since 1990, peatland disturbance has resulted in a 32% increase in fluvial
organic carbon flux from Southeast Asia - an increase that equates to more than half
of the entire annual fluvial organic carbon flux from all European peatlands.
Finally, we monitored fluvial organic carbon fluxes following large-scale peatland
fires in 2009/10 within the study sub-catchments and found fluvial carbon fluxes to
be 30-70% larger in the fire-affected catchments when compared to fluxes during the
same interval in the previous year (pre-fire). This is in marked contrast to the intact
catchment (control/no fire) where there were no differences observed in fluxes 'pre
to post fire years'. Our sub-catchment findings were also found to be representative
at a larger river basin scale and we estimate the fluvial carbon flux from the Sebangau
River basin (5,200 km<sup>2</sup>) to the Java Sea to be 0.58 Tg year<sup>-1</sup>.
This is a 25% increase on the flux calculated for the River Sebangau the preceding
year (pre-fire; 0.46 Tg). These new data are the first to demonstrate a large and
sustained pulse of fluvial carbon following large scale human-induced fires in carbon
rich tropical PSF. |
| 39886 |
authorList |
authors |
| 39886 |
presentedAt |
ext-3a62aaf6793370b3d9a72dd7ec7ba63e |
| 39886 |
status |
peerReviewed |
| 39886 |
type |
AcademicArticle |
| 39886 |
type |
Article |
| 39886 |
label |
Moore, S.; Gauci, V. ; Evans, C. and Page, S. E. (2013). Increased losses of organic
carbon and destabilising of tropical peatlands following deforestation, drainage and
burning. In: AGU Fall Meeting, 9-13 Dec 2013, San Francisco, CA, USA. |
| 39886 |
label |
Moore, S.; Gauci, V. ; Evans, C. and Page, S. E. (2013). Increased losses of organic
carbon and destabilising of tropical peatlands following deforestation, drainage and
burning. In: AGU Fall Meeting, 9-13 Dec 2013, San Francisco, CA, USA. |
| 39886 |
Title |
Increased losses of organic carbon and destabilising of tropical peatlands following
deforestation, drainage and burning |
| 39886 |
in dataset |
oro |