Congo’s peatlands dry up and can release millions of tons of CO2

Research led by the University of Leeds and published this week in the journal Naturepeatlands, which are natural carbon deposits, they are highly vulnerable to drought and can release billions of tons of carbon and accelerate global warming.

The study explains that at the same time as Stonehenge, a severe drought caused the world’s largest tropical peat bog to transform from a major carbon store to a major source of CO2 emissions (a potent greenhouse gas).

Peatlands stopped emitting carbon and reabsorbed it from the atmosphere only 2,000 years ago when the climate became wet again.. Scientists involved in the study warn that if current global warming leads to drought in the Congo region, history could repeat itself and could dangerously accelerate climate change. If that happened, Congo could free up peatlands. up to 30,000 million tons Carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere are equivalent to global emissions from burning fossil fuels for three years.

“Our study gives a grim warning from the past. If peatlands dry out beyond a certain threshold, they will release enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, which will further accelerate climate change,” said Simon Lewis, a researcher at the University of Leeds and University College London and lead author of the study.

“This is an important message for world leaders who will meet at the COP27 climate talks next week,” he stressed. peat bogs of Congo in Central Africa, It is the largest tropical peat bogs complex in the world.With an area of ​​16.7 million hectares, it is larger than England and Wales combined.

For the research, Congolese and European scientists took subterranean peat samples from remote swamp forests in central Congo. By analyzing plant remains, they were able to compile a record of vegetation and precipitation in the central Congo Basin during the last 17,500 years, when peat began to form. “Peat samples show us 7,000 to 2,000 years ago that there was a period when there was almost no peat deposition,” explains Yannick Garcin, of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development and lead author of the study.

This drought period reduced peat deposits by nearly two metres, and decomposition only stopped when the drought ended. point. Although at the moment peatlands mostly undisturbed and, if sustainably managed by local people, they are “very vulnerable” ecosystems not only to climate change but also to external pressures such as drainage for agriculture, felling of trees or oil use.

For Corneille Ewango of Kisangani University in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who led the study’s expeditions to collect peat samples, “This is another surprising finding regarding peatlands: they are more vulnerable than we thinkand everyone must do their part to protect them.

In this scientist’s view, polluting countries should rapidly reduce their carbon emissions “to limit the possibility that droughts will push peatlands beyond their tipping points.” while Democratic Republic of the Congo “Since one of the most fauna and carbon-rich ecosystems on earth is endangered, we should strengthen the protection of peatlands.”

Reference Work: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05389-3

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Environment department contact address:crisclimatica@prensaiberica.es