Southeast Asian peatland drainage emits 220 Mt of carbon per year, equivalent to 2.2% of global fossil-fuel emissions (original) (raw)

Southeast Asian peatlands are climatically important ecosystems, storing approximately 70 billion tons of carbon. Natural and human-induced droughts are lowering peatland water tables, increasing decomposition and the risk of peat-burning wildfires. The rapid nature of carbon losses arising from peatland drainage and accompanying fire-related losses compared to the slow accumulation of peat means that the effects of peatland drainage are essentially irreversible on human timescales. Here, we use a terrestrial biosphere model incorporating vertically-resolved peatland carbon and water dynamics to predict decomposition and fire in Southeast Asia as a result drainage-induced drying. The model captures observed patterns of interannual and seasonal variation in soil moisture and its soil moisture estimates are a better predictor of observed burned area fraction than either precipitation or remotely-sensed estimates of surface soil moisture (r2=0.63, 0.50, 0.56 respectively). Simulations ...