Authors:
A. Hooijer, W. A. Lee, X. X. Lu, A. Idris, Sugino, J. Jauhiainen, S. Page
Book:
Proceedings of the 14th International Peat Congress
Venue:
Stockholm
Keywords:
carbon-loss, drainage, se-asia, subsidence-monitoring, tropical-peatlands
Documentfile:
Hooijer et al 2012: Subsidence as an Accurate Measure of Carbon Loss in Drained Peatlands in SE Asia
Summary:
Theme IX. Tropical peatlands
SUMMARY
Peatland surface subsidence has long been used as a measure of carbon loss throughout the world. There are questions, however, on whether the method is always applied appropriately. In this paper, we show that it is necessary to measure over long periods and at a large number of locations to obtain meaningful results. Applying the most thorough protocol, subsidence rates in an around oil palm plantations in Jambi, Indonesia, are found to be quite constant at rates around 5 cm y-1. This number applies both to young and mature plantations, at water table depths around 0.6 m on average.