Tradeoff of CO2 and CH4 emissions from global peatlands under water-table drawdown

Yuanyuan Huang (), Phillipe Ciais, Yiqi Luo, Dan Zhu, Yingping Wang, Chunjing Qiu, Daniel S. Goll, Bertrand Guenet, David Makowski, Inge Graaf, Jens Leifeld, Min Jung Kwon, Jing Hu and Laiye Qu
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Yuanyuan Huang: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
Phillipe Ciais: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
Yiqi Luo: Northern Arizona University
Dan Zhu: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
Yingping Wang: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Chunjing Qiu: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
Daniel S. Goll: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
Bertrand Guenet: Laboratoire de Géologie, UMR 8538, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, CNRS, IPSL
David Makowski: INRAE, AgroParisTech, University Paris-Saclay, UMR MIA 518
Inge Graaf: Chair of Environmental Hydrological Systems, Faculty of Environmental and Natural Resources, University of Freiburg
Jens Leifeld: Agroscope, Climate and Agriculture Group
Min Jung Kwon: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
Jing Hu: Geosystems Research Institute, Mississippi State University
Laiye Qu: State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Climate Change, 2021, vol. 11, issue 7, 618-622

Abstract: Abstract Water-table drawdown across peatlands increases carbon dioxide (CO2) and reduces methane (CH4) emissions. The net climatic effect remains unclear. Based on global observations from 130 sites, we found a positive (warming) net climate effect of water-table drawdown. Using a machine-learning-based upscaling approach, we predict that peatland water-table drawdown driven by climate drying and human activities will increase CO2 emissions by 1.13 (95% interval: 0.88–1.50) Gt yr−1 and reduce CH4 by 0.26 (0.14–0.52) GtCO2-eq yr−1, resulting in a net increase of greenhouse gas of 0.86 (0.36–1.36) GtCO2-eq yr−1 by the end of the twenty-first century under the RCP8.5 climate scenario. This drops to 0.73 (0.2–1.2) GtCO2-eq yr−1 under RCP2.6. Our results point to an urgent need to preserve pristine and rehabilitate drained peatlands to decelerate the positive feedback among water-table drawdown, increased greenhouse gas emissions and climate warming.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01059-w

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