Peatlands and climatic change: tropical zone perspective
2002
Rieley, J.O. (University of Nottingham (United Kingdom))) | Page, S.E.
Peatlands provide fundamental ecological functions and environmental services including the regulation of water regimes and provision of habitats for fauna and flora. Peatlands are implicated strongly in climatic change processes and consequences. Peatlands play a significant role in the global carbon cycle because all are carbon stores. Some pristine mires are known to emit methane gas, a major contributor to the greenhouse effect. In contrast, all actively accumulating peatlands are carbon sinks that sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it up for thousands of years or until environmental change or human impact causes some to be released prematurely. Little attention has been given to the relationship between climatic change and the conservation and wise use of peatlands even though future changes in climate are predicted to affect their spatial extent, distribution and function through increased temperature, changes in precipitation and sea level rise. It is essential to understand how the twin impacts of land use change and climatic change may influence the functioning of wetlands in critical environmental processes. The Ramsar Convention is committed to provide guidance on climatic change in relation to wetlands generally but peatlands specifically and to improve working links between the Ramsar, Biodiversity and Climatic Change Conventions. The former will address the impact of climatic change on peatlands now and in the future whilst the latter two will explore ways in which peatlands can, through adaptive management, be valuable in mitigating the effects of climatic change and sea level rise. In these activities emphasis will be placed upon practical and 'on the ground' approaches to climatic change problems and the formulation and testing of good management practices
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