Tropical Peatlands

This Catalyst article looks at peatlands which usually conjures up images of bleak, boggy hillsides across Northern Europe, Russia and the USA. But peatlands are also found in the tropics. These currently act as a significant store of carbon, yet these valuable ecosystems are under threat; their disappearance could have severe consequences for the global climate. Approximately 400 million hectares (3%) of the world’s land surface is covered by peatlands. Although most of this is found in temperate zones, 10-12% is located in the tropics. Similar to their northern counterparts, tropical peatlands are nutrient poor, or ombotrophic, systems with low drainage rates and high levels of precipitation. The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2014, Volume 24, Issue 4.

Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of the magazine can be purchased from Mindsets.