TROPICAL PEATLANDS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

摘要

Peatlands globally store between 192 and 450 gigatonnes of carbon and play an important role in the carbon cycle. Tropical peatlands, only 10-12% of the global peatland area, could contain up to 25% of this amount. Evidence from a peat core from Central Kalimantan, Indonesia shows that carbon storage was non existent or slow during most of the late Pleistocene, but was rapid during the early Holocene, in response to successive major changes in climate. Tropical peatlands are now subject to major impacts owing to land use change and fire, but this paper emphasises their current role in the global carbon cycle: the peatlands of Kalimantan represent a carbon pool of 13 Pg and sink of 6 Tg and those of Indonesia a pool of 35 Pg and sink of 17 Tg.