Above- and Below-Ground Carbon Budget of Degraded Tropical Peatland Revealed by Multi-Temporal Airborne Laser Altimetry

Authors:
Tatsuo Sweda, H. Tsuzuki, Y. Maeda, V. Boehm and S.H. Limin

Book:
Proceedings of the 14th International Peat Congress

Venue:
Stockholm

Keywords:
airborne-laser-altimetry, degraded-peat-swamp, emission-from-peat, mega-rice-project, sequestration-by-vegetation-regrowth

Documentfile:
Sweda et al 2012: Above- and Below-Ground Carbon Budget of Degraded Tropical Peatland Revealed by Multi-Temporal Airborne Laser

Summary:

Theme IX. Tropical peatlands

SUMMARY

Exact, objective and verifiable carbon budget was quantified both for underground peat depletion and above ground biomass change in the degraded peat swamp forest of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia by multi-temporal airborne laser altimetry of ground and vegetation canopy surfaces. In a period of four years between the initial and terminal airborne laser altimetry along the same transects totaling 530 km covering the study area of 5,800 km², the peat surface subsided an overall average of 33.8 cm, while the vegetation canopy rose by 102 cm, resulting in an overall carbon emission of 46.8 tC/ha/yr from combustive and aerobic decomposition of peat and net sequestration of 1.84 tC/ha/yr by vegetation regrowth.