Abstract
Although accurate estimates of biomass loss during peat fires, and recovery over time, are critical in understanding net peat ecosystem carbon balance, empirical data to inform carbon models are scarce. During the 2019 dry season, fires burned through 133,631 ha of degraded peatlands of Central Kalimantan. This study reports carbon loss from surface fuels and the top peat layer of 18.5 Mg C ha−1 (3.5 from surface fuels and 15.0 from root/peat layer), releasing an average of 2.5 Gg (range 1.8–3.1 Gg) carbon in these fires. Peat surface change measurements over one month, as the fires continued to smolder, indicated that about 20 cm of the surface was lost to combustion of peat and fern rhizomes, roots and recently incorporated organic residues that we sampled as the top peat layer. Time series analysis of live green vegetation (NDVI trend), combined with field observations of vegetation recovery two years after the fires, indicated that vegetation recovery equivalent to fire-released carbon is likely to occur around 3 years after fires.
Highlights
Accurate estimates of biomass loss during peat fires, and recovery over time, are critical in understanding net peat ecosystem carbon balance, empirical data to inform carbon models are scarce
Sub-samples of litter, shrub and peat were analyzed for C content at the Centre for Agricultural Land Resource Research and Development using a loss on ignition method (LoI)
As our study used the direct measurements of biomass loss during fires, the emission factor (Mg C ha−1 ) was estimated as the difference in carbon mass from before fire to after fire for aboveground components and belowground components
Summary
The study was developed in degraded peatland where a fire burned from July to October 2019. Site 1 was sampled in July 2019 after the fire was extinguished in the immediate area, with samples taken in unburned and adjacent burned areas. Site 2 was sampled in September 2019 at the active front of the fire, so that the fire burned into areas where peat depth rods were placed prior to the fire advancing. An equal number of plots was established in unburned and in burned areas (Table 1); these plots were sampled at three points, resulting in 9 samples per treatment in Site 1 and 12 samples per treatment in Site 2 (Table 1, Figures 1 and 2A). Study sites were heavily degraded peatlands dominated by the fern Stenochlaena palustris. Aboveground samples comprised mostly ferns, grasses and litter, while belowground samples were made up of peat, fern rhizomes and roots (Figure 2B)
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