{"id":3227,"date":"2026-03-20T16:49:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T16:49:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/ted-feldpausch\/?p=3227"},"modified":"2026-03-27T17:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T17:04:10","slug":"amazon-peatlands-pyrogenic-carbon-wildfire-unprecedented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/ted-feldpausch\/2026\/03\/20\/amazon-peatlands-pyrogenic-carbon-wildfire-unprecedented\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unprecedented\u2019 wildfires in tropical peatlands during 20th century"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A new study reveals&nbsp;an&nbsp;unprecedented&nbsp;increase in&nbsp;wildfires&nbsp;in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;during the 20th century.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peatlands&nbsp;store vast quantities of carbon below the Earth\u2019s surface \u2013&nbsp;more than all the world\u2019s forest biomass combined&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;but when they&nbsp;catch fire&nbsp;large amounts&nbsp;of the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wildfires in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;regions&nbsp;have been on the rise in recent decades, but the&nbsp;history and characteristics of wildfires in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;remain&nbsp;largely unknown.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers&nbsp;therefore&nbsp;analysed&nbsp;charcoal records&nbsp;preserved in peat deposits across&nbsp;Central and&nbsp;South America, Africa, Southeast&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;and Australasia to reconstruct wildfire activity stretching back more than two millennia. &nbsp;The study was led by Dr Yuwan Wang, Prof Ted Feldpausch, and Prof Angela Gallego-Sala from the University of Exeter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Historically, peatland fire patterns&nbsp;are&nbsp;closely&nbsp;linked&nbsp;to climate fluctuations, particularly the length and severity of droughts. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers&nbsp;found&nbsp;that&nbsp;wildfire activity in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;declined&nbsp;for&nbsp;more than&nbsp;1,000 years,&nbsp;in line with&nbsp;changes in global temperatures&nbsp;and&nbsp;other natural&nbsp;climate variables.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in the last century, there was a dramatic increase in the number of wildfires, and&nbsp;regional differences&nbsp;in the results point to&nbsp;human activities&nbsp;being&nbsp;the root cause. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The increase&nbsp;in wildfires&nbsp;was&nbsp;mainly confined&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Southeast Asia and Australasian regions, where drainage for agriculture, deforestation and land conversion&nbsp;has left&nbsp;peat soils more vulnerable to ignition.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in less accessible peatland regions across South America and Africa, there were no such increases, although lead author Dr Yuwan Wang warns these regions could experience more wildfires too as population density increases and commercial agriculture and infrastructure expands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTo avoid large carbon emissions that&nbsp;further&nbsp;contribute to global warming&nbsp;we urgently need to&nbsp;protect these carbon-dense ecosystems,\u201d said Dr Wang&nbsp;from the University of Exeter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA reduction in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;peatland burning could be achieved through peatland conservation, and promoting sustainable resource management and ecosystem restoration, but this requires the collaboration of multiple groups&nbsp;and has to be carried out at sufficiently large scale.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.1111%2Fgcb.70717&amp;data=05%7C02%7CR.Parton%40exeter.ac.uk%7Ca7dbac5de3044c5bc85608de802a2b81%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a53%7C0%7C0%7C639089115760149043%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=VXP8n%2FC6YyxNyZxz3itegU%2BuI3SAB%2BND6s1jdB2re94%3D&amp;reserved=0\">Unprecedented burning in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;during the 20th century compared to the previous two millennia<\/a>\u201d is published in Global Change Biology.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Role of pyrogenic carbon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a separate study, the&nbsp;researchers&nbsp;provide the first estimate of&nbsp;the quantity of pyrogenic carbon \u2013 including charcoal and soot \u2013&nbsp;in&nbsp;Amazonian&nbsp;peatlands. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pyrogenic carbon&nbsp;is produced during wildfires&nbsp;where&nbsp;biomass&nbsp;or organic soil matter is&nbsp;converted into&nbsp;charcoal,&nbsp;soot&nbsp;or other forms of&nbsp;black carbon rather than being released into the atmosphere. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The chemical structure of pyrogenic&nbsp;carbon&nbsp;is more stable and&nbsp;resistant to decomposition than other forms of carbon, so it acts as a longer-term carbon sink. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers combined their own field dataset with published sources to estimate that pyrogenic carbon makes up 1.6% of the total organic carbon stock for the Amazon basin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This&nbsp;is&nbsp;low&nbsp;in&nbsp;percentage&nbsp;terms compared&nbsp;with higher global averages&nbsp;and suggests these intact&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;are resistant to wildfires.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe low percentage&nbsp;of pyrogenic carbon in Amazonian&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;shows&nbsp;that&nbsp;fires are not&nbsp;a&nbsp;natural phenomenon in peatland systems.&nbsp;But even though the buildup of pyrogenic carbon through&nbsp;wildfires does bring some benefits in terms of more robust carbon storage in the future, we do not want to destroy these ecosystems by burning them,\u201d&nbsp;said&nbsp;lead author&nbsp;Yuwan&nbsp;Wang from the University of Exeter. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs43247-025-02674-7&amp;data=05%7C02%7CR.Parton%40exeter.ac.uk%7Ca7dbac5de3044c5bc85608de802a2b81%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a53%7C0%7C0%7C639089115760168735%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=PSOb1iLPTb0tkj1f5emnS7qoLamSlGTCVpkytgIEERo%3D&amp;reserved=0\">Wildfire legacies on pyrogenic carbon stocks in Amazonian\u00a0peatlands<\/a>\u201d\u00a0is published in Nature Communications,\u00a0Earth\u00a0and Environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Header photo: Tropical peat swamp forest carbon monitoring, Central Kalimantan. Photo: Sigit Deni Sasmito\/CIFOR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study reveals&nbsp;an&nbsp;unprecedented&nbsp;increase in&nbsp;wildfires&nbsp;in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;during the 20th century.&nbsp;&nbsp; Peatlands&nbsp;store vast quantities of carbon below the Earth\u2019s surface \u2013&nbsp;more than all the world\u2019s forest biomass combined&nbsp;\u2013&nbsp;but when they&nbsp;catch fire&nbsp;large amounts&nbsp;of the stored carbon is released into the atmosphere. &nbsp; Wildfires in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;regions&nbsp;have been on the rise in recent decades, but the&nbsp;history and characteristics of wildfires in&nbsp;tropical&nbsp;peatlands&nbsp;remain&nbsp;largely unknown.&nbsp;&nbsp; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":999,"featured_media":3229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,17,29,53,83,109],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Unprecedented\u2019 wildfires in tropical peatlands during 20th century - Ted Feldpausch Research Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Research indicates Amazonian peatlands have low pyrogenic carbon levels, suggesting these ecosystems are naturally resistant to wildfires. 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