Scientists have discovered the largest tropical peat bog

(ORDO NEWS) — An international team of scientists has found that the area of ​​peatlands in the Congo Basin reaches 16.7 million hectares, which is equivalent to the area of ​​England and Wales combined.

This is 15 percent more than previously thought. Briefly about the results of the study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience

Experts have shown that in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) there are extensive peatlands with a depth of six and a half meters.

In total, the world’s largest peat ecosystem stores between 26 and 32 billion metric tons of carbon, equivalent to three years of global fossil fuel emissions.

Overall, the Congo Basin accounts for 36 per cent of the world’s peatland area and 28 per cent of the carbon in tropical peat ecosystems.

The peat swamp forests of central Congo are currently one of the most carbon-intensive ecosystems on earth, storing an average of 1,712 metric tons of carbon per hectare. Peatland development could be disastrous for efforts to mitigate global climate change.

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