Climate: The unexpected role of peatlands
Belgian researchers have highlighted the essential role played by peatlands in the Congo Basin in regulating the climate, noting that they release carbon stored for thousands of years into the atmosphere.
A team of scientists from UCLouvain made a groundbreaking discovery during a mission to the heart of the Congo Basin, home to the largest complex of tropical peatlands discovered to date.
Peatlands are wetlands covered with spongy material formed by the incomplete decomposition of vegetation. It is estimated that just under four per cent of the Earth's surface is covered by these “sponges of nature”, which alone account for one third of the carbon stored in the soils of the entire planet.
Until now, it was thought that the CO2 emitted by peatlands was the result of the decomposition of organic matter from surrounding ecosystems. However, following analysis of samples taken by Belgian researchers, it was found that carbon dating back several millennia was being released into the atmosphere.
This discovery, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, highlights the potential vulnerability of one of the planet's largest carbon reservoirs (600 million tonnes of CO2 absorbed per year) to environmental climate change.
This is a worrying phenomenon, the causes and consequences of which will continue to be studied!