Short‐ and long‐term carbon emissions from oil palm plantations converted from logged tropical peat swamp forest

作者：Jon McCalmont, Lip Khoon Kho, Yit Arn Teh, Kennedy Lewis, Melanie Chocholek, Elisa Rumpang, Timothy C. Hill · 发表于：Global Change Biology · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1111/gcb.15544 · 被引用次数：49 · 研究领域：Oil Palm Production and Sustainability、Bioenergy crop production and management、Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics

Abstract Need for regional economic development and global demand for agro‐industrial commodities have resulted in large‐scale conversion of forested landscapes to industrial agriculture across South East Asia. However, net emissions of CO 2 from tropical peatland conversions may be significant and remain poorly quantified, resulting in controversy around the magnitude of carbon release following conversion. Here we present long‐term, whole ecosystem monitoring of carbon exchange from two oil palm plantations on converted tropical peat swamp forest. Our sites compare a newly converted oil palm plantation (OPnew) to a mature oil palm plantation (OPmature) and combine them in the context of existing emission factors. Mean annual net emission (NEE) of CO 2 measured at OPnew during the conversion period (137.8 Mg CO 2 ha −1 year −1 ) was an order of magnitude lower during the measurement period at OPmature (17.5 Mg CO 2 ha −1 year −1 ). However, mean water table depth (WTD) was shallower (0.26 m) than a typical drainage target of 0.6 m suggesting our emissions may be a conservative estimate for mature plantations, mean WTD at OPnew was more typical at 0.54 m. Reductions in net emissions were primarily driven by increasing biomass accumulation into highly productive palms. Further analysis suggested annual peat carbon losses of 24.9 Mg CO 2 ‐C ha −1 year −1 over the first 6 years, lower than previous estimates for this early period from subsidence studies, losses reduced to 12.8 M...