ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Biogeochemical Dynamics
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1585537
Importance of N2O in greenhouse gas budgets of tropical peatlands
Provisionally accepted
Jaan Pärn1*
Mikk Espenberg1
Kaido Soosaar1
Kuno Kasak1,2
Sandeep Thayamkottu1
Thomas Schindler1
Reti Ranniku1,3
Kristina Sohar1
Lizardo Fachin4
Lulie Melling5
Ülo Mander1- 1University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
- 2University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
- 3University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States
- 4Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana, Iquitos, Peru
- 5Sarawak Tropical Peat Research Institute, Sarawak, Malaysia
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Tropical peatland ecosystems significantly influence Earth's climate through their greenhouse gas exchange. Permanently wet peatlands take up carbon dioxide in plants and accumulate organic carbon in soil but release methane. Man-made drainage of peat releases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. Exchange of the greenhouse gases in relationship with tropical conditions are poorly understood. Here, in a study across the full moisture range of tropical peatlands, we show that net emission of carbon dioxide dominates greenhouse gas budgets in drained tropical peatlands while nitrous oxide emission is the second most important contributor. Tropical peat swamp forests in their natural wet states are large greenhouse gas sinks and should be a global conservation and restoration priority.
Keywords: ammonium, Carbon Dioxide, Methane, nitrate, Nitrous Oxide, Peatland forest, Plantation, soil moisture Introduction
Received: 28 Feb 2025; Accepted: 25 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Pärn, Espenberg, Soosaar, Kasak, Thayamkottu, Schindler, Ranniku, Sohar, Fachin, Melling and Mander. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jaan Pärn, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
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