Abstract

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.

Details

Title
Tropical peatland carbon storage linked to global latitudinal trends in peat recalcitrance
Author
Hodgkins, Suzanne B 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Richardson, Curtis J 2 ; Dommain, René 3 ; Wang, Hongjun 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Glaser, Paul H 4 ; Verbeke, Brittany 5 ; B Rose Winkler 5 ; Cobb, Alexander R 6 ; Rich, Virginia I 7 ; Missilmani, Malak 8 ; Flanagan, Neal 2 ; Ho, Mengchi 2 ; Hoyt, Alison M 9 ; Harvey, Charles F 10 ; S Rose Vining 11 ; Hough, Moira A 12 ; Moore, Tim R 13 ; Richard, Pierre J H 14 ; Florentino B De La Cruz 15   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Toufaily, Joumana 8 ; Hamdan, Rasha 8 ; Cooper, William T 16 ; Chanton, Jeffrey P 5 

 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA; Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA 
 Duke University Wetland Center, Nicholas School of the Environment, Durham, NC, USA 
 Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany; Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA 
 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA 
 Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA 
 Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling, Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, Singapore, Singapore 
 Department of Microbiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA 
 Laboratory of Materials, Catalysis, Environment and Analytical Methods (MCEMA-CHAMSI), EDST and Faculty of Sciences I, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon 
 Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany 
10  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA 
11  Department of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 
12  Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 
13  Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada 
14  Département de Géographie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada 
15  Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA 
16  Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA 
Pages
1-13
Publication year
2018
Publication date
Sep 2018
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20411723
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2100849564
Copyright
© 2018. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.