Peru's Belgium-Sized Peatland Is Surprisingly Young
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- University of St Andrews researchers analyzed more than 150 new and previously published radiocarbon dates from Peru's Pastaza-Marañón Basin, the largest known peatland complex in Amazonia at roughly the size of Belgium, and found every sample is less than 9,000 years old — frequently less than 2,500 years old.
- Pastaza-Marañón Basin peatlands are roughly four times younger than Congo Basin peats, which exceed 40,000 years old, a contrast lead author Dr. Ian Lawson said underscores how dramatically tropical peatlands differ across regions.
- Peatland age tracks distance from Amazon river channels: younger deposits sit close to shifting floodplains where rivers frequently create and destroy peatlands, while older deposits are confined to areas away from active floodplains.
- The study uncovered pauses in past peat accumulation, evidence that carbon storage in some of these systems has been vulnerable to historical shifts in water flow and past climate change — though on the whole, the Peruvian sites appear less drought-scarred than the Congo Basin peats.
- Peruvian peat accumulates at only a few millimeters per year — about 10 times slower than human fingernails grow — making it effectively non-renewable, a point co-author Dr. Katy Roucoux stressed in arguing that stored carbon could be lost far faster than it can be replaced.
- Co-author Dr. Adam Hastie of Charles University in Prague warned that the region's geological and biological variability means peatland management policies cannot take a one-size-fits-all approach, and previous work has shown the ecosystem already supports sustainable harvest of non-timber products like palm fruits.
Why it matters: The Peru basin is one of the most dynamic peat-forming regions on the planet, and its youth means the carbon locked in its soils is far more exposed to river-driven disruption than the ancient Congo Basin deposits. With peat growth capped at a few millimeters per year, any drainage or destruction releases carbon that cannot be replaced on any human timescale, making the basin's conservation a high-stakes, irreversible decision for climate policy.
