title: Variable carbon losses from recurrent fires in drained tropical peatlands.
abstract: Tropical peatland fires play a significant role in the context of global warming through emissions of substantial amounts of greenhouse gases. However, the state of knowledge on carbon loss from these fires is still poorly developed with few studies reporting the associated mass of peat consumed. Furthermore, spatial and temporal variations in burn depth have not been previously quantified. This study presents the first spatially explicit investigation of fire-driven tropical peat loss and its variability. An extensive airborne Light Detection and Ranging data set was used to develop a prefire peat surface modelling methodology, enabling the spatially differentiated quantification of burned area depth over the entire burned area. We observe a strong interdependence between burned area depth, fire frequency and distance to drainage canals. For the first time, we show that relative burned area depth decreases over the first four fire events and is constant thereafter. Based on our results, we revise existing peat and carbon loss estimates for recurrent fires in drained tropical peatlands. We suggest values for the dry mass of peat fuel consumed that are 206 t ha(-1) for initial fires, reducing to 115 t ha(-1) for second, 69 t ha(-1) for third and 23 t ha(-1) for successive fires, which are 58-7% of the current IPCC Tier 1 default value for all fires. In our study area, this results in carbon losses of 114, 64, 38 and 13 t C ha(-1) for first to fourth fires, respectively. Furthermore, we show that with increasing proximity to drainage canals both burned area depth and the probability of recurrent fires increase and present equations explaining burned area depth as a function of distance to drainage canal. This improved knowledge enables a more accurate approach to emissions accounting and will support IPCC Tier 2 reporting of fire emissions.
authors.affiliation: Biology Department II, GeoBio Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Grosshaderner Strasse 2, 82152, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.|RSS Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH, Isarstr. 3, 82065, Baierbrunn, Germany.
authors.forename: Kristina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Konecny
authors.affiliation: RSS Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH, Isarstr. 3, 82065, Baierbrunn, Germany.
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ballhorn
authors.affiliation: RSS Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH, Isarstr. 3, 82065, Baierbrunn, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Navratil
authors.affiliation: RSS Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH, Isarstr. 3, 82065, Baierbrunn, Germany.
authors.forename: Juilson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jubanski
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK.
authors.forename: Susan E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Page
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tansey
authors.affiliation: Deltares, Rotterdamseweg 185, 2629 HD, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Aljosja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hooijer
authors.affiliation: Deltares, Rotterdamseweg 185, 2629 HD, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vernimmen
authors.affiliation: Biology Department II, GeoBio Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Grosshaderner Strasse 2, 82152, Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.|RSS Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH, Isarstr. 3, 82065, Baierbrunn, Germany.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Siegert
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon; D005390:Fires; D007214:Indonesia; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012987:Soil; D014329:Tropical Climate
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D002244:Carbon
keywords: Indonesia; Light Detection and Ranging; carbon loss; climate change; fires; remote sensing; tropical peatlands