As the climate warms and regional drying becomes more frequent, peatlands – some of the planet’s most important carbon sinks – are increasingly under threat.
As the climate warms and regional drying becomes more frequent, peatlands – some of the planet’s most important carbon sinks – are increasingly under threat.
But a study, led by an international team including from the University of Exeter, has shown peatland ecosystems may have a natural defence through the combined forces of plant changes and microbes.
The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that during historic periods of drying the growth of woody plants in a subtropical Chinese peatland improved the quality of organic matter and suppressed decomposing microbial activity. This plant-microbe cooperation helped safeguard carbon stores at a time when they might otherwise have been lost to the atmosphere.
Lead author Dr Yiming Zhang, Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol, said: “Woody plants didn’t just survive in a drying climate – they helped build resilience. Their inputs made the peat more chemically resistant to breakdown, and in response, microbes adjusted their metabolism, reducing the rate of carbon loss. It’s a surprising natural feedback we didn’t fully appreciate before.”
Read More: University of Exeter
Image: Woody plants expanding in a southern China peatland. Credit: Dr Yiming Zhang via University of Exeter
