Abstract
Aim
Tropical peatlands are globally significant carbon stores, increasingly threatened by human activities and climate change. However, their ecohydrological responses to shifting water availability remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the connections between climate change, hydrology and vegetation dynamics in a coastal tropical peatland in Panama, aiming to understand the effects of future drying on peatland dynamics.
Location
Bocas del Toro, Panama (9°22′54″N, 82°21′59″W).
Taxon
Angiosperms.
Methods
High-resolution multiproxy palaeoecological data, including pollen and plant macrofossils (vegetation), testate amoebae (water-table depth) and physical peat properties, are used to explore the relationships between climate change, hydrology and vegetation in a coastal tropical peatland over the past 700 years. Downscaled climate simulations are integrated with this process-based understanding to project the likely future responses of this coastal peatland to climate change.
Results
We identify a clear connection between precipitation variability, driven by shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone and water-table dynamics, which subsequently influence changes in the peatland vegetation mosaic. Historical drier periods are marked by the expansion of shrub communities into the open peatland plain.
Main Conclusions
Palaeoecological studies incorporating climate and hydrological proxies are essential for understanding both recent and future ecohydrological dynamics of tropical peatlands. Our findings suggest that in response to future climate change, water tables will lower and shrub communities will expand due to rising temperatures and reduced precipitation. Additionally, future sea-level rise, combined with declining rainfall, may result in seawater intrusion and significant vegetation shifts in coastal tropical peatlands.
Tropical peatlands are globally significant carbon stores, increasingly threatened by human activities and climate change. However, their ecohydrological responses to shifting water availability remain poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the connections between climate change, hydrology and vegetation dynamics in a coastal tropical peatland in Panama, aiming to understand the effects of future drying on peatland dynamics.
Location
Bocas del Toro, Panama (9°22′54″N, 82°21′59″W).
Taxon
Angiosperms.
Methods
High-resolution multiproxy palaeoecological data, including pollen and plant macrofossils (vegetation), testate amoebae (water-table depth) and physical peat properties, are used to explore the relationships between climate change, hydrology and vegetation in a coastal tropical peatland over the past 700 years. Downscaled climate simulations are integrated with this process-based understanding to project the likely future responses of this coastal peatland to climate change.
Results
We identify a clear connection between precipitation variability, driven by shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone and water-table dynamics, which subsequently influence changes in the peatland vegetation mosaic. Historical drier periods are marked by the expansion of shrub communities into the open peatland plain.
Main Conclusions
Palaeoecological studies incorporating climate and hydrological proxies are essential for understanding both recent and future ecohydrological dynamics of tropical peatlands. Our findings suggest that in response to future climate change, water tables will lower and shrub communities will expand due to rising temperatures and reduced precipitation. Additionally, future sea-level rise, combined with declining rainfall, may result in seawater intrusion and significant vegetation shifts in coastal tropical peatlands.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Biogeography |
| Early online date | 03 Dec 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Early online date - 03 Dec 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 The Author(s). Journal of Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Keywords
- palaeoenvironments
- ecohydrology
- climate change
- tropical ecology
- precipitation change
- wetlands
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Ecology
Access to Document
- Ecohydrological response of a tropical peatland to rainfall changes driven by intertropical convergence zone variability
Copyright 2024 the authors. This is an open access article published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the author and source are cited.