IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcli/v11y2021i7d10.1038_s41558-021-01059-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • Yuanyuan Huang

    (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay
    CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere)

  • 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
    Water Systems and Global Change Group, Wageningen University & Research)

  • 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
    Wetland Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Soil and Water Science Department, University of Florida)

  • Laiye Qu

    (State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • 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 & Laiye Qu, 2021. "Tradeoff of CO2 and CH4 emissions from global peatlands under water-table drawdown," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(7), pages 618-622, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01059-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-021-01059-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01059-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41558-021-01059-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gerrit Angst & Kevin E. Mueller & Michael J. Castellano & Cordula Vogel & Martin Wiesmeier & Carsten W. Mueller, 2023. "Unlocking complex soil systems as carbon sinks: multi-pool management as the key," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Zuzanna Lipińska & Roman Cieśliński & Marlena Pawłowska & Izabela Chlost & Łukasz Pietruszyński, 2023. "Human Impact on Water Circulation Patterns in Raised Bogs of the Baltic Type, Northern Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-25, August.
    3. Carlo Bravo & Rosanna Toniolo & Marco Contin & Maria De Nobili, 2021. "Electrochemical and Structural Modifications of Humic Acids in Aerobically and Anaerobically Incubated Peat," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-13, November.
    4. Hui Zhang & Minna Väliranta & Graeme T. Swindles & Marco A. Aquino-López & Donal Mullan & Ning Tan & Matthew Amesbury & Kirill V. Babeshko & Kunshan Bao & Anatoly Bobrov & Viktor Chernyshov & Marissa , 2022. "Recent climate change has driven divergent hydrological shifts in high-latitude peatlands," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-7, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:11:y:2021:i:7:d:10.1038_s41558-021-01059-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.