Abstract
The world’s most extensive tropical peatlands occur in the Cuvette Centrale depression in the Congo Basin, which stores 30.6 petagrams of carbon (95% CI, 6.3–46.8). Improving our understanding of the genesis, development and functioning of these under-studied peatlands requires knowledge of their topography and, in particular, whether the peat surface is domed, as this implies a rain-fed system. Here we use a laser altimeter mounted on an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) to measure peat surface elevation along two transects at the edges of a peatland, in the northern Republic of Congo, to centimetre accuracy and compare the results with an analysis of nearby satellite LiDAR data (ICESat and ICESat-2). The LiDAR elevations on both transects show an upward slope from the peatland edge, suggesting a surface elevation peak of around 1.8 m over ~20 km. While modest, this domed shape is consistent with the peatland being rainfed. In-situ peat depth measurements and our LiDAR results indicate that this peatland likely formed at least 10,000 years BP in a large shallow basin ~40 km wide and ~3 m deep.
Highlights
Peatlands cover three percent of the Earth’s land surface but store one third of global soil carbon [1,2]
The Cuvette Centrale peatlands store 30.6 Pg C
2 shows the forest area studied in this the work
Summary
Peatlands cover three percent of the Earth’s land surface but store one third of global soil carbon [1,2]. The carbon in these systems is vulnerable to release due to land use and climate change, especially in the tropics where they are often drained and used for the cultivation of oil palm and pulpwood plantations. Awhen combination peatland vegetation clearance drainageof[3,4] Mineral such large carbon combinedof with peat depth measurements, theand topography the underlying layer can losses have not occurred so far in other tropicalabout regions be deduced, providing further information the [5,6]
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