Smouldering peat fires could trigger “unending” climate change

Scientists are warning of uncontrollable fires, smoke-filled atmospheres and ash falling from the sky following new research into peat fires and climate change.

New research, part-funded by the European Research Council, has set out the threat of drying peatlands (also known as mires) across the globe and their increased vulnerability to fire and carbon loss. Peatlands comprise around 3% of the Earth’s land surface and store approximately 25% of the world’s soil carbon. The deposits of plant material and organic matter mixed with soil are too wet to support high levels of decomposition.

Speaking about their investigations, Adam Watts, a fire ecologist at Nevada’s Desert Research Institute, said there is great concern regarding the emissions from the smouldering fires. Watts said: “Peat fires are an example of wildfires having effects far beyond the areas where they occur, and these effects can last for a very long time.”

Smouldering fires are already the largest fires on Earth in terms of their carbon footprint and burn through thick layers of peat, built up over thousands of years, which blanket the ground in ecosystems ranging from the tropics to the arctic. The smoke contains large amounts of carbon and makes peat fires dangerous to human health, harming air quality and possibly triggering asthma and other respiratory problems.

The researchers have concluded that almost all peat-rich regions will become more susceptible to drying and burning with a changing climate, noting that the ecology of peat fires and the role of peat fires in long term Earth system processes need to be explored more thoroughly in future research.

Adding his thoughts, co-author Guido van der Werf, a professor at VU University Amsterdam, said: “Thanks to satellite data, we are fully aware of the vast scale of burning in drained peatlands, mostly in Indonesia. The scary thing is future climate change may actually do the same thing: dry out peatlands. If peatlands become more vulnerable to fire worldwide, this will exacerbate climate change in an unending loop.”

The study is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.