The large Amazonian peatland carbon sink in the subsiding Pastaza‐Marañón foreland basin, Peru

Abstract

AbstractThe carbon (C) dynamics of tropical peatlands can be of global importance, because, particularly in Southeast Asia, they are the source of considerable amounts of C released to the atmosphere as a result of land‐use change and fire. In contrast, the existence of tropical peatlands in Amazonia has been documented only recently. According to a recent study, the 120 000 km2 subsiding Pastaza‐Marañón foreland basin in Peruvian Amazonia harbours previously unstudied and up to 7.5 m thick peat deposits. We studied the role of these peat deposits as a C reserve and sink by measuring peat depth, radiocarbon age and peat and C accumulation rates at 5–13 sites. The basal ages varied from 1975 to 8870 cal yr bp, peat accumulation rates from 0.46 to 9.31 mm yr−1 and C accumulation rates from 28 to 108 g m−2 yr−1. The total peatland area and current peat C stock within the area of two studied satellite images were 21 929 km2 and 3.116 Gt (with a range of 0.837–9.461 Gt). The C stock is 32% (with a range of 8.7–98%) of the best estimate of the South American tropical peatland C stock and 3.5% (with a range of 0.9–10.7%) of the best estimate of the global tropical peatland C stock. The whole Pastaza‐Marañón basin probably supports about twice this peatland area and peat C stock. In addition to their contemporary geographical extent, these peatlands probably also have a large historical (vertical) extension because of their location in a foreland basin characterized by extensive river sedimentation, peat burial and subsidence for most of the Quaternary period. Burial of peat layers in deposits of up to 1 km thick Quaternary river sediments removes C from the short‐term C cycle between the biosphere and atmosphere, generating a long‐term C sink.