Climate change-induced peatland drying in Southeast Asia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15549167 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nathan C Dadap (0000-0001-7586-6210, Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics, corresponding author), Ale×ander R Cobb (0000-0002-3128-3002, Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics), Alison M Hoyt (0000-0003-0813-5084, Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics), Charles F Harvey (0000-0002-7759-4447, Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics), Andrew F Feldman (0000-0003-1547-6995, Goddard Space Flight Center), Eun‐Soon Im (0000-0002-8953-7538, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), Alexandra G Konings (0000-0002-2810-1722, Department of Physics, Mathematics and Informatics) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 074026-074026 |
| Publication date | 2022-06-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Research Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326 |
| Publisher | IOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1088/1748-9326/ac7969 |
| OpenAlex | W4283029761 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 73 |
When organic peat soils are sufficiently dry, they become flammable. In Southeast Asian peatlands, widespread deforestation and associated drainage create dry conditions that, when coupled with El Niño-driven drought, result in catastrophic fire events that release large amounts of carbon and deadly smoke to the atmosphere. While the effects of anthropogenic degradation on peat moisture and fire risk have been extensively demonstrated, climate change impacts to peat flammability are poorly understood. These impacts are likely to be mediated primarily through changes in soil moisture. Here, we used neural networks (trained on data from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite) to model soil moisture as a function of climate, degradation, and location. The neural networks were forced with regional climate model projections for 1985–2005 and 2040–2060 climate under RCP8.5 forcing to predict changes in soil moisture. We find that reduced precipitation and increased evaporative demand will lead to median soil moisture decreases about half as strong as those observed during recent El Niño droughts in 2015 and 2019. Based on previous studies, such reductions may be expected to accelerate peat carbon emissions. Our results also suggest that soil moisture in degraded areas with less tree cover may be more sensitive to climate change than in other land use types, motivating urgent peatland restoration. Climate change may play an important role in future soil moisture regimes and by extension, future peat fire in Southeast Asian peatlands
Climate change · Climatology · Deforestation (computer science · Flammability · Geography · Hydrology (agriculture · Meteorology · Moisture · Peat · Precipitation · Soil carbon · Soil retrogression and degradation · Soil water · Water content · Climate change and permafrost · Environmental Science · Fire effects on ecosystems · Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology · Ecology · Geology · Soil Science
Increased damage from fires in logged forests during droughts caused by El Niño
The underappreciated potential of peatlands in global climate change mitigation strategies
Global and regional importance of the tropical peatland carbon pool
The RCP greenhouse gas concentrations and their extensions from 1765 to 2300
The amount of carbon released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997
Satellite soil moisture observations predict burned area in Southeast Asian peatlands
Human-induced changes in Indonesian peatlands increase drought severity
Peatland protection and restoration are key for climate change mitigation
From carbon sink to carbon source
Ecohydrological changes after tropical forest conversion to oil palm
Carbon storage capacity of tropical peatlands in natural and artificial drainage networks
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |