TY - JOUR
T1 - Risks to carbon storage from land-use change revealed by peat thickness maps of Peru
AU - Hastie, Adam
AU - Honorio Coronado, Euridice N.
AU - Reyna, José
AU - Mitchard, Edward
AU - Åkesson, Christine M.
AU - Baker, Timothy R.
AU - Cole, Lydia E. S.
AU - Córdova Oroche, César J.
AU - Dargie, Greta
AU - Dávila, Nállarett
AU - De Grandi, Elsa
AU - Del Águila, Jhon
AU - Del Castilo Torres, Dennis
AU - Cruz Paiva, Ricardo de la
AU - Draper, Frederick C.
AU - Flores, Gerardo
AU - Grández, Julio
AU - Hergoualc’h, Kristell
AU - Householder, J. Ethan
AU - Janovec, John P.
AU - Lähteenoja, Outi
AU - Reyna, David
AU - Rodríguez-Veiga, Pedro
AU - Roucoux, Katherine H.
AU - Tobler, Mathias
AU - Wheeler, Charlotte
AU - Williams, Mathew
AU - Lawson, Ian T.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by NERC (grant ref. NE/R000751/1) to I.T.L., A.H., K.H.R., E.T.A.M., C.M.A., T.R.B., G.D. and E.C.D.G.; Leverhulme Trust (grant ref. RPG-2018-306) to K.H.R., L.E.S.C. and C.E.W.; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant no. 5439, MonANPeru network) to T.R.B., E.N.H.C. and G.F.; Wildlife Conservation Society to E.N.H.C.; Concytec/British Council/Embajada Británica Lima/Newton Fund (grant ref. 220–2018) to E.N.H.C. and J.D.; Concytec/NERC/Embajada Británica Lima/Newton Fund (grant ref. 001–2019) to E.N.H.C. and N.D.; the governments of the United States (grant no. MTO-069018) and Norway (grant agreement no. QZA-12/0882) to K.H.; and NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship (grant ref no. NE/V018760/1) to E.N.H.C. We thank SERNANP, SERFOR and GERFOR for providing research permits, and the different Indigenous and local communities, research stations and tourist companies for giving consent and allowing access to the forests. We acknowledge the invaluable support of technicians J. Irarica, J. Sanchez, H, Vásquez and R. Flores, without whom much of the fieldwork would not have been possible.
Funding Information:
This work was funded by NERC (grant ref. NE/R000751/1) to I.T.L., A.H., K.H.R., E.T.A.M., C.M.A., T.R.B., G.D. and E.C.D.G.; Leverhulme Trust (grant ref. RPG-2018-306) to K.H.R., L.E.S.C. and C.E.W.; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (grant no. 5439, MonANPeru network) to T.R.B., E.N.H.C. and G.F.; Wildlife Conservation Society to E.N.H.C.; Concytec/British Council/Embajada Británica Lima/Newton Fund (grant ref. 220–2018) to E.N.H.C. and J.D.; Concytec/NERC/Embajada Británica Lima/Newton Fund (grant ref. 001–2019) to E.N.H.C. and N.D.; the governments of the United States (grant no. MTO-069018) and Norway (grant agreement no. QZA-12/0882) to K.H.; and NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship (grant ref no. NE/V018760/1) to E.N.H.C. We thank SERNANP, SERFOR and GERFOR for providing research permits, and the different Indigenous and local communities, research stations and tourist companies for giving consent and allowing access to the forests. We acknowledge the invaluable support of technicians J. Irarica, J. Sanchez, H, Vásquez and R. Flores, without whom much of the fieldwork would not have been possible.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, Crown.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems but land-use change has led to the loss of large peatland areas, associated with substantial greenhouse gas emissions. To design effective conservation and restoration policies, maps of the location and carbon storage of tropical peatlands are vital. This is especially so in countries such as Peru where the distribution of its large, hydrologically intact peatlands is poorly known. Here field and remote sensing data support the model development of peatland extent and thickness for lowland Peruvian Amazonia. We estimate a peatland area of 62,714 km2 (5th and 95th confidence interval percentiles of 58,325 and 67,102 km2, respectively) and carbon stock of 5.4 (2.6–10.6) PgC, a value approaching the entire above-ground carbon stock of Peru but contained within just 5% of its land area. Combining the map of peatland extent with national land-cover data we reveal small but growing areas of deforestation and associated CO2 emissions from peat decomposition due to conversion to mining, urban areas and agriculture. The emissions from peatland areas classified as forest in 2000 represent 1–4% of Peruvian CO2 forest emissions between 2000 and 2016. We suggest that bespoke monitoring, protection and sustainable management of tropical peatlands are required to avoid further degradation and CO2 emissions.
AB - Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems but land-use change has led to the loss of large peatland areas, associated with substantial greenhouse gas emissions. To design effective conservation and restoration policies, maps of the location and carbon storage of tropical peatlands are vital. This is especially so in countries such as Peru where the distribution of its large, hydrologically intact peatlands is poorly known. Here field and remote sensing data support the model development of peatland extent and thickness for lowland Peruvian Amazonia. We estimate a peatland area of 62,714 km2 (5th and 95th confidence interval percentiles of 58,325 and 67,102 km2, respectively) and carbon stock of 5.4 (2.6–10.6) PgC, a value approaching the entire above-ground carbon stock of Peru but contained within just 5% of its land area. Combining the map of peatland extent with national land-cover data we reveal small but growing areas of deforestation and associated CO2 emissions from peat decomposition due to conversion to mining, urban areas and agriculture. The emissions from peatland areas classified as forest in 2000 represent 1–4% of Peruvian CO2 forest emissions between 2000 and 2016. We suggest that bespoke monitoring, protection and sustainable management of tropical peatlands are required to avoid further degradation and CO2 emissions.
U2 - 10.1038/s41561-022-00923-4
DO - 10.1038/s41561-022-00923-4
M3 - Article
SN - 1752-0894
VL - 15
SP - 369
EP - 374
JO - Nature Geoscience
JF - Nature Geoscience
ER -