A unified explanation for the morphology of raised peatlands.

Autor: Cobb AR; Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), Singapore, Singapore. alex.cobb@smart.mit.edu., Dommain R; Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.; Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.; National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA., Yeap K; School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore., Hannan C; School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore., Dadap NC; Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA., Bookhagen B; Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany., Glaser PH; Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA., Harvey CF; Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), Singapore, Singapore.; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Nature [Nature] 2024 Jan; Vol. 625 (7993), pp. 79-84. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Dec 13.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06807-w
Abstrakt: Raised peatlands, or bogs, are gently mounded landforms that are composed entirely of organic matter 1-4 and store the most carbon per area of any terrestrial ecosystem 5 . The shapes of bogs are critically important because their domed morphology 4,6,7 accounts for much of the carbon that bogs store and determines how they will respond to interventions 8,9 to stop greenhouse gas emissions and fires after anthropogenic drainage 10-13 . However, a general theory to infer the morphology of bogs is still lacking 4,6,7 . Here we show that an equation based on the processes universal to bogs explains their morphology across biomes, from Alaska, through the tropics, to New Zealand. In contrast to earlier models of bog morphology that attempted to describe only long-term equilibrium shapes 4,6,7 and were, therefore, inapplicable to most bogs 14-16 , our approach makes no such assumption and makes it possible to infer full shapes of bogs from a sample of elevations, such as a single elevation transect. Our findings provide a foundation for quantitative inference about the morphology, hydrology and carbon storage of bogs through Earth's history, as well as a basis for planning natural climate solutions by rewetting damaged bogs around the world.
(© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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