Peat Bog Fires Are Burning Issue in Climate Calculations

The greatest concentrations of the world’s soil carbon have been pinpointed by researchers − and much of it is a dangerously flammable addition to climate change concerns.

An international scientific survey of peat bogs has calculated that they contain more carbon than all the world’s forests, heaths and grasslands together − and perhaps as much as the planet’s atmosphere.  Since peat can smoulder underground for years, it is another potential factor in global warming calculations.

Peat is simply leaf litter that never completely decayed.  Ancient peatlands become distinctive ecosystems and, in some places, an economic resource.

Soil carbon
Merritt Turetsky, an ecosystem ecologist at the University of Guelph, Ontario, and colleagues report in Nature Geoscience that peatlands cover between only 2% and 3% of the planet’s land surface, but store 25% of the planet’s soil carbon.

In the high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, they cover about 4 million sq km and store between 500 and 600 billion tonnes of carbon.  In the tropics – and especially in south-east Asia – they cover about 400,000 sq km and store 100 billion tonnes of carbon.  The entire pool of atmospheric carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, adds up to about 850 billion tonnes.

In its pristine condition, a peat bog is unlikely to burn: the peat exists because vegetation doesn’t decay normally in water.

But, over thousands of years, humans have drained the peat bogs, exploited them for fuel, and even used peat as a gardening mulch.  Dry peat burns easily, and some of the largest fires on Earth are now in the drained peatlands.

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