Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance
Peatlands represent large terrestrial carbon banks. Given that most peat accumulates in boreal regions, where low temperatures and water saturation preserve organic matter, the existence of peat in (sub)tropical regions remains enigmatic. Here we examined peat and plant chemistry across a latitudina...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125774 |
| _version_ | 1826188142537867264 |
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| author | Hodgkins, Suzanne B. Richardson, Curtis J. Dommain, René Wang, Hongjun Glaser, Paul H. Verbeke, Brittany Winkler, B. Rose Cobb, Alexander R. Rich, Virginia I. Missilmani, Malak Flanagan, Neal Ho, Mengchi Hoyt, Alison M. Harvey, Charles F Vining, S. Rose Hough, Moira A. Moore, Tim R. Richard, Pierre J. H. De La Cruz, Florentino B. Toufaily, Joumana Hamdan, Rasha Cooper, William T. Chanton, Jeffrey P. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Hodgkins, Suzanne B. Richardson, Curtis J. Dommain, René Wang, Hongjun Glaser, Paul H. Verbeke, Brittany Winkler, B. Rose Cobb, Alexander R. Rich, Virginia I. Missilmani, Malak Flanagan, Neal Ho, Mengchi Hoyt, Alison M. Harvey, Charles F Vining, S. Rose Hough, Moira A. Moore, Tim R. Richard, Pierre J. H. De La Cruz, Florentino B. Toufaily, Joumana Hamdan, Rasha Cooper, William T. Chanton, Jeffrey P. |
| author_sort | Hodgkins, Suzanne B. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Peatlands represent large terrestrial carbon banks. Given that most peat accumulates in boreal regions, where low temperatures and water saturation preserve organic matter, the existence of peat in (sub)tropical regions remains enigmatic. Here we examined peat and plant chemistry across a latitudinal transect from the Arctic to the tropics. Near-surface low-latitude peat has lower carbohydrate and greater aromatic content than near-surface high-latitude peat, creating a reduced oxidation state and resulting recalcitrance. This recalcitrance allows peat to persist in the (sub)tropics despite warm temperatures. Because we observed similar declines in carbohydrate content with depth in high-latitude peat, our data explain recent field-scale deep peat warming experiments in which catotelm (deeper) peat remained stable despite temperature increases up to 9 °C. We suggest that high-latitude deep peat reservoirs may be stabilized in the face of climate change by their ultimately lower carbohydrate and higher aromatic composition, similar to tropical peats. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T07:55:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/125774 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T07:55:13Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1257742022-09-23T09:38:21Z Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance Hodgkins, Suzanne B. Richardson, Curtis J. Dommain, René Wang, Hongjun Glaser, Paul H. Verbeke, Brittany Winkler, B. Rose Cobb, Alexander R. Rich, Virginia I. Missilmani, Malak Flanagan, Neal Ho, Mengchi Hoyt, Alison M. Harvey, Charles F Vining, S. Rose Hough, Moira A. Moore, Tim R. Richard, Pierre J. H. De La Cruz, Florentino B. Toufaily, Joumana Hamdan, Rasha Cooper, William T. Chanton, Jeffrey P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Peatlands represent large terrestrial carbon banks. Given that most peat accumulates in boreal regions, where low temperatures and water saturation preserve organic matter, the existence of peat in (sub)tropical regions remains enigmatic. Here we examined peat and plant chemistry across a latitudinal transect from the Arctic to the tropics. Near-surface low-latitude peat has lower carbohydrate and greater aromatic content than near-surface high-latitude peat, creating a reduced oxidation state and resulting recalcitrance. This recalcitrance allows peat to persist in the (sub)tropics despite warm temperatures. Because we observed similar declines in carbohydrate content with depth in high-latitude peat, our data explain recent field-scale deep peat warming experiments in which catotelm (deeper) peat remained stable despite temperature increases up to 9 °C. We suggest that high-latitude deep peat reservoirs may be stabilized in the face of climate change by their ultimately lower carbohydrate and higher aromatic composition, similar to tropical peats. National Science Foundation (Grant 1114155) National Science Foundation (Grant 1114161) NSF (Award 0628647) US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (contract DE-SC0012088) US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research under the Genomic Science program (Award DE-SC0004632) US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research under the Genomic Science program (Award DE-SC0010580) US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research under the Genomic Science program (Award DE-SC0016440) NASA Interdisciplinary Studies in Earth Science program (Award NNX17AK10G) US Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research under the Terrestrial Ecosystem Sciences program (Award DE-SC0012272) 2020-06-11T21:00:14Z 2020-06-11T21:00:14Z 2018-09 2017-06 2020-05-27T15:00:24Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125774 Hodgkins, S.B., et al. "Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance." Nature Communications 9,1 (2018): 3640. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06050-2 © 2018 Author(s) en 10.1038/S41467-018-06050-2 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Springer Science and Business Media LLC Nature |
| spellingShingle | Hodgkins, Suzanne B. Richardson, Curtis J. Dommain, René Wang, Hongjun Glaser, Paul H. Verbeke, Brittany Winkler, B. Rose Cobb, Alexander R. Rich, Virginia I. Missilmani, Malak Flanagan, Neal Ho, Mengchi Hoyt, Alison M. Harvey, Charles F Vining, S. Rose Hough, Moira A. Moore, Tim R. Richard, Pierre J. H. De La Cruz, Florentino B. Toufaily, Joumana Hamdan, Rasha Cooper, William T. Chanton, Jeffrey P. Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance |
| title | Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance |
| title_full | Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance |
| title_fullStr | Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance |
| title_short | Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance |
| title_sort | tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125774 |
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