Current knowledge on the Cuvette Centrale peatland complex and future research directions

Abstract

The Cuvette Centrale is the largest tropical peatland complex in the world, covering approximately 145,000 km2 across the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It stores ca. 30.6 Pg C, the equivalent of three years of global carbon dioxide emissions and is now the first trans-national Ramsar site. Despite its size and importance as a global carbon store, relatively little is known about key aspects of its ecology and history, including its formation, the scale of greenhouse gas flows, its biodiversity and its history of human activity. Here, we synthesise available knowledge on the Cuvette Centrale, identifying key areas for further research. Finally, we review the potential of mathematical models to assess future trajectories for the peatlands in terms of the potential impacts of resource extraction or climate change.

The climate and land use change nexus: Implications for designing adaptation and conservation investment strategies in Sub‐Saharan Africa

“…Protection is needed as they store an estimated 30Pg of carbon (Crezee et al, 2022; Dargie et al, 2017), which amounts to almost 30 percent of the world's tropical peat carbon. In addition, peatland ecosystems also know high biodiversity levels and provide an array of livelihood opportunities to local communities, including fishing, and gathering of fruits and other forest products (Biddulph et al, 2021). To avoid peatlands shifting from carbon sinks to sources of GHG emissions and preserve the multitude of ecosystem services that peatlands provide, there is a need for investment in conservation of these key ecosystems. Restoration of degraded lands .…”

What determines peat swamp vegetation type in the Central Congo Basin?

“…Negative anomalies indicate underestimation of the mapped palm swamp composition for those locations, and due to the significant positive correlation between palm swamp dominance and seasonal rainfall accumulations over the sub-basins included in the model, these anomalies may indicate additional water input from the Ngiri river, or from other ground water inputs including sub-surface and surface run-off. The region between the Ubangi and Ngiri rivers is characterised by palm and hardwood swamps, interspersed with permanently flooded wetland (Dargie et al, 2017;Biddulph et al, 2021). It is therefore likely that this region experiences sufficient net water input to meet the minimum net water input requirement for palm swamps, and if it does receive additional ground water input, then, as with the DRC 1 to 4 sub-basins, this model would not be successful at modelling for these particular locations, as it does not account for all water input sources.…”

Estimation of Dissolved Organic Carbon in River Flows and Identification of the Relationships Between Peat Humic Fractions and Physicochemical Qualities

“…Currently, no information is reported on the form and amount of carbon exported from the cultivated and drained mountainous peatlands in Congo. With the recent discovery of the largest tropical peatland straddling the two Congo, some works (Dargie et al 2017, Dargie et al 2019Biddulph et al 2021) have however focused on the extent, the reserve of carbon, or even the risks to which peatlands are exposed. With the growing concern about the sustainable management of peatlands in the context of climate change, it is essential to assess the carbon rate exported by waters and to understand its behavior through different humic fractions of OM.…”