Tropical peatlands play an important role in global carbon (C) cycling

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the future work and abstract of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2024 and 2026, spanning 2 journals. Those papers have been cited 8 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 3 representative gaps

• Long-term patterns of peat accumulation and organic matter decomposition in Costa Rican peatlands (2026) · Biogeosciences · doi

  This study offers the first detailed analysis of peat sediments for Costa Rica. The lab-based work presents important new datasets on peat geochemical properties (bulk density, or- ganic matter content, carbon and nitrogen content). A key finding is that bulk density values tend to be greater in Costa Rican peatlands (average = 0.24 g cm−3), and perhaps across tropical peatland lowlands, than what is typically reported for extra-tropical peatlands (average = 0.1 g cm−3), possibly due to elevated clay mineral content as revealed in the FTIR spectra. The enrichment in aromatic and aliphatic carbon shown by the FTIR data confirms the humified, stable na- ture of the tropical peats, both in the lowlands and at high- elevation sites. Importantly, this observation applies across our four (diverse) sites, regardless of peatland type, age, or geomorphological setting, suggesting that rapid and intensive decomposition within the uppermost portion of the peat pro- file can lead to long-term carbon storage; we note however that the recalcitrance of the parent plant material remains to be tested. In terms of peatland dynamics, a broad range of peatland inception ages were found across Costa Rica (∼ 500 to 11 000 cal. yr BP). Spatiotemporal patterns are thus far re- lated to geomorphological setting, with older peats found Biogeosciences, 23, 5653–5683, 2026 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-5653-2026 H. Mitchell et al.: Costa Rican peatland histories 5671 in the montane region, intermediate and variable peat ages found along inland river floodplains, and young peats found along the coast. Averaged apparent rates of peat accumula- tion in the lowlands have been rapid and steady over time, with age-depth models generally displaying linear trends. Lastly, the total peat carbon store in Costa Rica is estimated at 0.1573 Gt, on the basis of our new analyses combined with a recent peatland probability map. Overall, this study pro- vides critical, first of its kind information on the characteris- tics of Costa Rican peats, deepening our overall knowledge on tropical peatlands. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-23-5653-2026 Biogeosciences, 23, 5653–5683, 2026

  generalfuture work
  Keywords: peat costa peatland carbon tropical peats found rica content rican peatlands across lowlands bulk density
• The spatial distribution and paleoecology of Caribbean peatlands (2024) · Communications Earth & Environment · cited 6× · doi

  Caribbean peatlands are a critical ecosystem that remain poorly understood, according to a synthesis of paleoecology, carbon dynamics and mapping data: estimations of distribution and extent vary by more than 200% depending upon mapping technique

  generalabstractevidence 5/5
  Keywords: mapping caribbean peatlands critical ecosystem remain poorly understood according synthesis paleoecology carbon dynamics estimations distribution
• From the top: surface-derived carbon fuels greenhouse gas production at depth in a peatland (2025) · Biogeosciences · cited 2× · doi

  Tropical peatlands play an important role in global carbon (C) cycling, but little is known about factors driving carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) emissions from these ecosystems, especially production in deeper soils.

  generalabstractevidence 5/5
  Keywords: carbon tropical peatlands play important role global cycling little known factors driving dioxide methane emissions

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