Abstract
Although tropical peatlands are huge carbon reservoirs, they are threatened by climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. Here, we assessed two contrasting peatland sites in the Philippines in terms of aboveground biomass and carbon content, soil carbon stock, and CO2 fluxes in the soils. The Caimpugan peatland in Agusan del Sur was considered the ‘undisturbed’ site, while the Bambanin peatland in Mindoro Oriental was the ‘disturbed’ site. The aboveground biomass at the undisturbed site was 35.8 ± 30.0 Mg ha−1) while at the disturbed site, it was 2.0 Mg ha−1 ± 1.9 Mg ha−1. The aboveground C content at the undisturbed site varied from 1.29 Mg C ha−1 to 37.2 Mg C ha−1, while the disturbed site only ranged from 0.1 Mg C ha−1 to 2.1 Mg C ha−1. A trend of increasing soil carbon content as the soil gets deeper was observed in both sites. At the undisturbed site, the average soil carbon content was 750 ± 710 Mg ha−1 and 595 ± 406 Mg ha−1 at the disturbed site. In terms of soil carbon emission, the undisturbed site had 3.6 ± 3.0 g C m−2d−1 and was only one-third the emission rate at the disturbed site (11.2 ± 6.4 g C m−2d−1). Our study highlights the dire condition of a disturbed peatland in terms of vegetation/soil carbon dynamics. We underscored the need to address the pressing issues on peatland drainage, agricultural activities, and human settlement within the peatland sites geared towards effectively managing this important carbon reservoir in the Philippines.
Highlights
Peatlands areas are where partially decayed organic materials accumulate over time and where litter deposition exceeds anaerobic decomposition
As the soil profile gets deeper, the soil C content becomes higher. This trend was evident in our undisturbed site, where an increasing soil C stock was observed from 217 ± 65 Mg ha−1 at a soil depth of 0–15 cm to 2181 ± 908 Mg ha−1 at 50–100 cm depth (p < 0.05; Figure 5)
A lower aboveground biomass estimate in our cultivated peatland (0.2 Mg ha−1 to 4.6 Mg ha−1) as compared to other aforementioned peatland sites above indicates that land conversions, vegetation removal, and other disturbances such as drainage construction for agricultural production negatively impact the aboveground biomass of the site
Summary
Peatlands areas are where partially decayed organic materials accumulate over time and where litter deposition exceeds anaerobic decomposition These sites are important reservoirs of biodiversity, carbon, and water [1,2]. Land-use change and water management in the oil palm production in Malaysia intensify peat degradation affecting CO2 fluxes from peatlands [12,13]. Human activities such as dam construction across drainage canals in Indonesia increased the decomposition rate of the peat and CO2 emission [2,14]. The necessity to assess the present carbon dynamics of the above-mentioned disturbed and relatively undisturbed peatland sites in the Philippines prompted us to conduct this study. Our study supports the growing concern for peatland conservation and restoration locally and globally
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