eprintid: 10160191 rev_number: 6 eprint_status: archive userid: 699 dir: disk0/10/16/01/91 datestamp: 2022-11-24 11:30:29 lastmod: 2022-11-24 11:30:29 status_changed: 2022-11-24 11:30:29 type: article metadata_visibility: show sword_depositor: 699 creators_name: Garcin, Yannick creators_name: Schefuß, Enno creators_name: Dargie, Greta C creators_name: Hawthorne, Donna creators_name: Lawson, Ian T creators_name: Sebag, David creators_name: Biddulph, George E creators_name: Crezee, Bart creators_name: Bocko, Yannick E creators_name: Ifo, Suspense A creators_name: Mampouya Wenina, Y Emmanuel creators_name: Mbemba, Mackline creators_name: Ewango, Corneille EN creators_name: Emba, Ovide creators_name: Bola, Pierre creators_name: Kanyama Tabu, Joseph creators_name: Tyrrell, Genevieve creators_name: Young, Dylan M creators_name: Gassier, Ghislain creators_name: Girkin, Nicholas T creators_name: Vane, Christopher H creators_name: Adatte, Thierry creators_name: Baird, Andy J creators_name: Boom, Arnoud creators_name: Gulliver, Pauline creators_name: Morris, Paul J creators_name: Page, Susan E creators_name: Sjögersten, Sofie creators_name: Lewis, Simon L title: Hydroclimatic vulnerability of peat carbon in the central Congo Basin ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B03 divisions: C03 divisions: F26 keywords: Carbon cycle, Palaeoclimate, Tropical ecology note: © 2022 Springer Nature Limited. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). abstract: The forested swamps of the central Congo Basin store approximately 30 billion metric tonnes of carbon in peat1,2. Little is known about the vulnerability of these carbon stocks. Here we investigate this vulnerability using peat cores from a large interfluvial basin in the Republic of the Congo and palaeoenvironmental methods. We find that peat accumulation began at least at 17,500 calibrated years before present (cal. yr BP; taken as AD 1950). Our data show that the peat that accumulated between around 7,500 to around 2,000 cal. yr BP is much more decomposed compared with older and younger peat. Hydrogen isotopes of plant waxes indicate a drying trend, starting at approximately 5,000 cal. yr BP and culminating at approximately 2,000 cal. yr BP, coeval with a decline in dominant swamp forest taxa. The data imply that the drying climate probably resulted in a regional drop in the water table, which triggered peat decomposition, including the loss of peat carbon accumulated prior to the onset of the drier conditions. After approximately 2,000 cal. yr BP, our data show that the drying trend ceased, hydrologic conditions stabilized and peat accumulation resumed. This reversible accumulation-loss-accumulation pattern is consistent with other peat cores across the region, indicating that the carbon stocks of the central Congo peatlands may lie close to a climatically driven drought threshold. Further research should quantify the combination of peatland threshold behaviour and droughts driven by anthropogenic carbon emissions that may trigger this positive carbon cycle feedback in the Earth system. date: 2022-11-02 date_type: published publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC official_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05389-3 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1986476 doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05389-3 medium: Print-Electronic pii: 10.1038/s41586-022-05389-3 lyricists_name: Lewis, Simon lyricists_id: SLLEW24 actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette actors_id: BFFLY94 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Nature event_location: England issn: 0028-0836 citation: Garcin, Yannick; Schefuß, Enno; Dargie, Greta C; Hawthorne, Donna; Lawson, Ian T; Sebag, David; Biddulph, George E; ... Lewis, Simon L; + view all <#> Garcin, Yannick; Schefuß, Enno; Dargie, Greta C; Hawthorne, Donna; Lawson, Ian T; Sebag, David; Biddulph, George E; Crezee, Bart; Bocko, Yannick E; Ifo, Suspense A; Mampouya Wenina, Y Emmanuel; Mbemba, Mackline; Ewango, Corneille EN; Emba, Ovide; Bola, Pierre; Kanyama Tabu, Joseph; Tyrrell, Genevieve; Young, Dylan M; Gassier, Ghislain; Girkin, Nicholas T; Vane, Christopher H; Adatte, Thierry; Baird, Andy J; Boom, Arnoud; Gulliver, Pauline; Morris, Paul J; Page, Susan E; Sjögersten, Sofie; Lewis, Simon L; - view fewer <#> (2022) Hydroclimatic vulnerability of peat carbon in the central Congo Basin. Nature 10.1038/s41586-022-05389-3 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05389-3>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10160191/1/s41586-022-05389-3.pdf