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Substantial carbon sequestration by peatlands in temperate areas revealed by InSAR

Khodaei, Behshid LU orcid ; Hashemi, Hossein LU orcid ; Salimi, Shokoufeh LU and Berndtsson, Ronny LU orcid (2023) In Environmental Research Letters 18(4).
Abstract
Peatlands are unique ecosystems that contain massive amounts of carbon. These ecosystems are incredibly vulnerable to human disturbance and climate change. This may cause the peatland carbon sink to shift to a carbon source. A change in the carbon storage of peatlands may result in surface deformation. This research uses the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique to measure the deformation of the peatland's surface in south Sweden in response to the seasonal and extreme weather conditions in recent years, including the unprecedented severe drought in the summer of 2018. The deformation map of the study area is generated through a time-series analysis of InSAR from June 2017 to November 2020. Monitoring the peatland... (More)
Peatlands are unique ecosystems that contain massive amounts of carbon. These ecosystems are incredibly vulnerable to human disturbance and climate change. This may cause the peatland carbon sink to shift to a carbon source. A change in the carbon storage of peatlands may result in surface deformation. This research uses the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique to measure the deformation of the peatland's surface in south Sweden in response to the seasonal and extreme weather conditions in recent years, including the unprecedented severe drought in the summer of 2018. The deformation map of the study area is generated through a time-series analysis of InSAR from June 2017 to November 2020. Monitoring the peatland areas in this region is very important as agricultural and human activities have already caused many peatlands to disappear. This further emphasizes the importance of preserving the remaining peat sites in this region. Based on the InSAR results, a method for calculating the carbon flux of the peat areas is proposed, which can be utilized as a regular monitoring approach for other remote areas. Despite the severe drought in the summer of 2018, our findings reveal a significant uplift in most of the investigated peat areas during the study period. Based on our estimations, 86% of the peatlands in the study area experienced an uplift corresponding to about 47 000 tons of carbon uptake per year. In comparison, the remaining 14% showed either subsidence or stable conditions corresponding to about 2300 tons of carbon emission per year during the study period. This emphasizes the importance of InSAR as an efficient and accurate technique to monitor the deformation rate of peatlands, which have a vital role in the global carbon cycle. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
InSAR, peatland, carbon sequestration, deformation, Sweden
in
Environmental Research Letters
volume
18
issue
4
article number
044012
publisher
IOP Publishing
external identifiers
  • scopus:85150905051
ISSN
1748-9326
DOI
10.1088/1748-9326/acc194
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
59e993e1-59ce-40de-a7a3-8b23b5b2ac12
date added to LUP
2023-04-03 10:46:49
date last changed
2024-06-04 09:47:56
@article{59e993e1-59ce-40de-a7a3-8b23b5b2ac12,
  abstract     = {{Peatlands are unique ecosystems that contain massive amounts of carbon. These ecosystems are incredibly vulnerable to human disturbance and climate change. This may cause the peatland carbon sink to shift to a carbon source. A change in the carbon storage of peatlands may result in surface deformation. This research uses the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) technique to measure the deformation of the peatland's surface in south Sweden in response to the seasonal and extreme weather conditions in recent years, including the unprecedented severe drought in the summer of 2018. The deformation map of the study area is generated through a time-series analysis of InSAR from June 2017 to November 2020. Monitoring the peatland areas in this region is very important as agricultural and human activities have already caused many peatlands to disappear. This further emphasizes the importance of preserving the remaining peat sites in this region. Based on the InSAR results, a method for calculating the carbon flux of the peat areas is proposed, which can be utilized as a regular monitoring approach for other remote areas. Despite the severe drought in the summer of 2018, our findings reveal a significant uplift in most of the investigated peat areas during the study period. Based on our estimations, 86% of the peatlands in the study area experienced an uplift corresponding to about 47 000 tons of carbon uptake per year. In comparison, the remaining 14% showed either subsidence or stable conditions corresponding to about 2300 tons of carbon emission per year during the study period. This emphasizes the importance of InSAR as an efficient and accurate technique to monitor the deformation rate of peatlands, which have a vital role in the global carbon cycle.}},
  author       = {{Khodaei, Behshid and Hashemi, Hossein and Salimi, Shokoufeh and Berndtsson, Ronny}},
  issn         = {{1748-9326}},
  keywords     = {{InSAR; peatland; carbon sequestration; deformation; Sweden}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Environmental Research Letters}},
  title        = {{Substantial carbon sequestration by peatlands in temperate areas revealed by InSAR}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acc194}},
  doi          = {{10.1088/1748-9326/acc194}},
  volume       = {{18}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}