Mangroves provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling, soil formation, wood production, fish spawning grounds, ecotourism and carbon (C) storage 1 . High rates of tree and plant growth, coupled with anaerobic, water-logged soils that slow decomposition, result in large long-term C storage. Given their global significance as large sinks of C, preventing mangrove loss would be an e ective climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy. It has been reported that C stocks in the Indo-Pacific region contain on average 1,023 MgC ha −1 (ref. 2). Here, we estimate that Indonesian mangrove C stocks are 1,083 ± 378 MgC ha −1 . Scaled up to the country-level mangrove extent of 2.9 Mha (ref. 3), Indonesia's mangroves contained on average 3.14 PgC. In three decades Indonesia has lost 40% of its mangroves 4 , mainly as a result of aquaculture development 5 . This has resulted in annual emissions of 0.07-0.21 Pg CO 2 e. Annual mangrove deforestation in Indonesia is only 6% of its total forest loss 6 ; however, if this were halted, total emissions would be reduced by an amount equal to 10-31% of estimated annual emissions from land-use sectors at present. Conservation of carbon-rich mangroves in the Indonesian archipelago should be a high-priority component of strategies to mitigate climate change.Globally, deforestation and conversion of mangroves has been shown to contribute 0.08-0.48 Pg CO 2 e yr −1 , or 10% of the total global emissions from tropical deforestation, even though mangroves account for only about 0.7% of the world's tropical forest area 2 . C losses from mangrove conversion can be high not only because of losses from aboveground C pools but also belowground pools. Potential C losses from mangroves converted to shrimp ponds in the Dominican Republic were 661-1,135 MgC ha −1 (ref. 7).In 1980, there were 4.2 Mha of mangrove forests along Indonesia's 95,000 km of coastline 3 . Over just 20 years mangrove forest cover had declined about 26%, to an estimated 3.
Lowland tropical forests once covered a large fraction of tropical southern China, but currently have an extent of ca 633,800 ha, mostly in Xishuangbanna of southern Yunnan. The Xishuangbanna region has a typical monsoon climate with a mean annual temperature ranging between 15.1 • C and 21.7 • C, and precipitation between 1200 and 2500 mm. There is a pronounced dry season between November and April with frequent occurrence of heavy fog. Rainfall during the wet season between May and October accounts for over 80 percent of total annual precipitation. Water deposition from fog accounts for over one-third of total water input during the dry season in the forests, suggesting an important role that fog may play in pushing up the northern limit of tropical rain forest in Southeast Asia.
Soil organisms provide crucial ecosystem services that support human life. However, little is known about their diversity, distribution, and the threats affecting them. Here, we compiled a global dataset of 60 sampled earthworm communities from over 7000 sites in 56 countries to predict patterns in earthworm diversity, abundance, and biomass. We identify the environmental drivers shaping these patterns. Local species richness and abundance typically peaked at higher latitudes, while biomass peaked in the tropics, patterns opposite to those observed in aboveground organisms. Similar to many aboveground taxa, climate variables were more important in shaping earthworm communities than soil properties or habitat 65 cover. These findings highlight that, while the environmental drivers are similar, conservation strategies to conserve aboveground biodiversity might not be appropriate for earthworm diversity, especially in a changing climate.
BackgroundA large proportion of the world’s tropical peatlands occur in Indonesia where rapid conversion and associated losses of carbon, biodiversity and ecosystem services have brought peatland management to the forefront of Indonesia’s climate mitigation efforts. We evaluated peat volume from two commonly referenced maps of peat distribution and depth published by Wetlands International (WI) and the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), and used regionally specific values of carbon density to calculate carbon stocks.ResultsPeatland extent and volume published in the MoA maps are lower than those in the WI maps, resulting in lower estimates of carbon storage. We estimate Indonesia’s total peat carbon store to be within 13.6 GtC (the low MoA map estimate) and 40.5 GtC (the high WI map estimate) with a best estimate of 28.1 GtC: the midpoint of medium carbon stock estimates derived from WI (30.8 GtC) and MoA (25.3 GtC) maps. This estimate is about half of previous assessments which used an assumed average value of peat thickness for all Indonesian peatlands, and revises the current global tropical peat carbon pool to 75 GtC. Yet, these results do not diminish the significance of Indonesia’s peatlands, which store an estimated 30% more carbon than the biomass of all Indonesian forests. The largest discrepancy between maps is for the Papua province, which accounts for 62–71% of the overall differences in peat area, volume and carbon storage. According to the MoA map, 80% of Indonesian peatlands are <300 cm thick and thus vulnerable to conversion outside of protected areas according to environmental regulations. The carbon contained in these shallower peatlands is conservatively estimated to be 10.6 GtC, equivalent to 42% of Indonesia’s total peat carbon and about 12 years of global emissions from land use change at current rates.ConclusionsConsidering the high uncertainties in peatland extent, volume and carbon storage revealed in this assessment of current maps, a systematic revision of Indonesia’s peat maps to produce a single geospatial reference that is universally accepted would improve national peat carbon storage estimates and greatly benefit carbon cycle research, land use management and spatial planning.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13021-017-0080-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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