Congo peatlands could release billions of tonnes of carbon

Researchers hike into the swamp forest to take peat samples. Picture: Professor Simon Lewis The world's largest tropical peatland turned from being a major store of carbon to a source of carbon dioxide emissions as a result of climate change thousands of years ago, new research has revealed. Around the time that Stonehenge was built, 5,000 years ago, the climate of central Congo began to dry, leading to the peatlands emitting carbon dioxide. The Congo peatlands only stopped releasing carbon and reverted back to taking carbon out of the atmosphere when the climate got wetter again in the past 2,000 years, according to a major international study co-coordinated by the University of Leeds. The peatlands are more vulnerable than we thought, and everyone must play their role in protecting them Professor Corneille Ewango Scientists involved in the study are warning that if modern-day global heating produces droughts in the Congo region, history could repeat itself, dangerously accelerating climate change. If that were to happen, up to 30 billion tonnes of carbon could be released from the peatlands into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas. That is equivalent to the global emissions from fossil fuel burning over a three year period.