AIM

This research aims to measure the impact of peat hydrological restoration activities on greenhouse gas emissions in restored peatlands area.

 

WHERE

Palangka Raya and Pulang Pisau Regency, Central Kalimantan.

 

WHY

Tropical peatlands cover 0,25% of the global surface but contain 3% of the global soil carbon stocks, which makes them significant carbon sinks. Indonesia has approximately 13,43 Mha of those tropical peat soils, which is more than 30% of the global tropical peat area. With these areas, Indonesia is amongst the countries with the largest tropical peat swamp in the world (Warren et al., 2017). However, peatlands in Indonesia have been under threat for years due to the high demand for agricultural and industrial plantations, settlements, and other land uses. Almost half of Indonesia’s peatland has been degraded and is mostly located in Sumatra and Kalimantan (Masganti et al., 2014). Degraded peatlands are enormously flammable, and since the fire on peatlands can spread below the surface burning peatlands can be difficult to extinguish. This then leads to carbon release into the atmosphere, making one of the Earth’s most efficient long-term carbon sinks become a short-term emission source. Emissions from peatlands not only comes from peat fires, but also from degraded peatlands due to the excessive peatland drainage. The emission in the degraded peatlands was two times greater than that in the intact peatlands (Deshmukh et al.,  2021), estimated at 1.9 gigatonnes of CO2e annually. This is equivalent to 5% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (IUCN, 2017). 
 

In 2015, the country suffered one of its worst burning seasons in years. Large parts of the country’s land and forest area (around 2.6 million hectares) were burned out of control since June 2015, impacting the health, education, and livelihoods of millions of Indonesians living in the areas with the worst burning. Total carbon released from peatlands area to the atmosphere was estimated to be about 1.848 million tonnes C (Setyawati and Suwarsono, 2018). This has also resulted in billions of dollars’ worth of damages and losses, estimated at US$28 billion (Kiely et al., 2021), with Central Kalimantan has been known as one of the most-suffered provinces from peat fires at that time. Peatlands in Central Kalimantan Province have also been degraded due to a giant tropical peat swamp-forest conversion, about 9,191 km2 of peatland, was converted to the fields for rice cultivation and promote transmigration through the unsuccessful Mega Rice Project  (Notohadiprawiro, 1998). The project just left a hugely drained peatland area mainly due to the building of over 4,600 km of canals to open up the area and make it suitable for cultivation. 


Peatland restoration aims to return degraded peatlands to a stable state where they are able to function naturally and support their typical wildlife. Indonesia has committed to restoring over 2 million hectares of peatlands since 2016. The Government of Indonesia has made huge effort in restoring degraded peatland to prevent peat fires and, in the end, the carbon emissions could be reduced. However, carbon emissions-related research in the restored tropical peatlands are lacking, as mentioned in the 2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories for Wetlands (IPCC, 2014), with data for non-CO2 emissions from tropical peatlands particularly scarce (Jovani-Sancho et al., 2023).  


To fill this gap, this study will be conducted with the main objective to measure the impact of peat hydrological restoration activities on greenhouse gas emissions in restored peatlands area. The new emissions data for CO2 (Carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane), and N2O (Nitrous oxide) will be collected through this research. Considering that greenhouse gas emissions are also affected by peat characteristics, several parameters will also be measured, including: water table depth (WTD), peat thickness, peat soil bulk density, soil pH, soil temperature, surface temperature, carbon (C) content, nitrogen (N) content, C/N ratio, total dissolved nitrogen, peat motion, and peat subsidence. Greenhouse gas-related research on tropical peatlands is essential to be carried out in term to enrich the data and help related-stakeholders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in this area. 

 

HOW

Several activities that have been/will be conducted to run this research include:

1. Preliminary Survey: Specific research locations in rewetted sites and degraded sites, have been identified during desktop study by overlying peat distribution map, land use/land cover maps, peatland drainage map, rewetting structure distribution map, and administrative map of Central Kalimantan Province. A preliminary survey is needed to visit potential research locations obtained from desktop study and decide where the research will be conducted. Four sites, two each for degraded and restored sites, consist of forest and non-forest areas have been chosen as research locations.

2. Measurement Tools Installation and Soil Survey: Measurement tool installation has been done in four selected sites. Furthermore, a soil survey will also be conducted during this stage to collect disturbed and undisturbed soil samples. Those samples will then be analyzed in the laboratory to gain peat characteristics data that includes peat soil bulk density, soil pH, soil carbon (C) content,  and soil nitrogen (N) content. Peat thickness data will also be collected during the soil survey.

3. Data Collection Activities: The time-series data that include greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, and N2O; measured using portable greenhouse gas analyzer and gas chromatography), Soil pH, soil temperature, surface temperature, soil moisture content, Water Table Depth (WTD), peat vertical movement, and peat subsidence will be obtained during data collection activities. These activities will be conducted bi-monthly for one year period.

4. Greenhouse Gas Sample Analysis and Emissions Calculations: Greenhouse gas samples collected from the field will then be analyzed at Laboratorium Balingtan or the laboratory of Agro-Environmental Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture. Flux calculations will be calculated following Jovani-Sancho et.al. (2023) methodology, which uses R 3.6.3 (R Core Team, 2013) and the flux v0.3-0package (Jurasinski et al.,2014). Fluxes will be converted to μg m-2 h-1 using the molecular weight of CO2, CH4, and N2O (i.e. 44.01, 16.04 and 44.01 g mol-1, respectively). Furthermore, average CO2, CH4, and N2O emissions for restored and degraded peatlands will be calculated using the mean values of all sites for each category.

 

PARTNERS

Center for International Cooperation in Sustainable Management of Tropical Peatland (CIMTROP)/University of Palangka Raya, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), and BRIN. 

 

OTHER INFORMATION

This research is under Land and Carbon Lab (LCL) Project.