Loss of soil carbon in a world heritage peatland following a bushfire
Rani Carroll A , Ian A. Wright A and Jason K. Reynolds
A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Science, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia.
* Correspondence to: j.reynolds@westernsydney.edu.au
International Journal of Wildland Fire 32(7) 1059-1070 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF22204
Submitted: 7 October 2022 Accepted: 7 April 2023 Published: 21 April 2023
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of IAWF. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Background: Climatic events can have rapid and widespread environmental impacts on peatlands. This is concerning because peatlands are restricted environments in Australia and are vulnerable to degradation.
Aims: This study aimed to investigate the loss of carbon from a burnt and eroded peatland. The cumulative effects of drought, bushfire and erosion events in south-eastern Australia was documented in a peatland in the Kings Tableland region within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area in New South Wales, Australia.
Methods: Following a fire and subsequent rain event, soil classification and the total export of soil materials and nutrients were quantified.
Key results: The fire and erosional events caused an estimated loss of 28.80 t of organic material and 3.46 t of carbon from this site in a single 3-month period.
Conclusions: Peatlands are slow-forming accretionary systems and this study highlights the potential for considerable loss of organic material and carbon from peatland systems due to rapid, climatic-driven changes.
Implications: Peatland degradation in world heritage areas can have implications for carbon accounting and soil erosional loss, which may impact downstream environments and the functioning of these sensitive systems.
Keywords: bushfire, carbon, carbon storage, ecosystems: temperate, mass movement, organosol, peatland, pollutants: soil.
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