The amount of carbon released from peat and forest fires in Indonesia during 1997
Abstract
Tropical peatlands are one of the largest near-surface reserves of terrestrial organic carbon, and hence their stability has important implications for climate change. In their natural state, lowland tropical peatlands support a luxuriant growth of peat swamp forest overlying peat deposits up to 20 metres thick. Persistent environmental change-in particular, drainage and forest clearing-threatens their stability, and makes them susceptible to fire. This was demonstrated by the occurrence of widespread fires throughout the forested peatlands of Indonesia during the 1997 El Niño event. Here, using satellite images of a 2.5 million hectare study area in Central Kalimantan, Borneo, from before and after the 1997 fires, we calculate that 32% (0.79 Mha) of the area had burned, of which peatland accounted for 91.5% (0.73 Mha). Using ground measurements of the burn depth of peat, we estimate that 0.19-0.23 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon were released to the atmosphere through peat combustion, with a further 0.05 Gt released from burning of the overlying vegetation. Extrapolating these estimates to Indonesia as a whole, we estimate that between 0.81 and 2.57 Gt of carbon were released to the atmosphere in 1997 as a result of burning peat and vegetation in Indonesia. This is equivalent to 13-40% of the mean annual global carbon emissions from fossil fuels, and contributed greatly to the largest annual increase in atmospheric CO(2) concentration detected since records began in 1957 (ref. 1).
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The ensemble fire weather season length metric captured important wildfire events throughout Eurasia, such as the Indonesian fires of 1997-98 and the 2010 Western Russia heatwave.
“Our ensemble fire weather season length metric captured important wildfire events throughout Eurasia such as the Indonesian fires of 1997–98 where peat fires, following an El Niño-induced drought, released carbon equivalent to 13–40% of the global fossil fuel emissions from only 1.4% of the global vegetated land area (Fig. 4, 1997–1998)46 and the heatwave over Western Russia in 2010 (Fig. 4, 2010)”
From Climate-induced variations in global wildfire danger from 1979 to 2013 (2015) · cites this paper as [46]
A single peat fire in Indonesia in 1997 is reported to have released emissions comparable to 20%-50% of global fossil fuel emissions during the same year.
“A single peat fire in Indonesia in 1997 is reported to have released emissions comparable to 20%-50% of global fossil fuel emissions during the same year [606].”
From Tackling climate change with machine learning (2023) · cites this paper as [606]
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- Authors
- Page, S. E., Siegert, F., Rieley, J. O., Boehm, H.-D. V., Jaya, A., & Limin, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Leicester (GB)
- Remote Sensing Solutions (Germany) (DE)
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- University of Palangka Raya (ID)
- Corresponding author
- Page, Susan E.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2002-11
- Volume
- 420
- Issue
- 6911
- Pages
- 61-65
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2058662258
- Cited by
- 1,885
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 87 · 2022: 98 · 2021: 104 · 2020: 101 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 87 · 2017: 91 · 2016: 106 · 2015: 99 · 2014: 97 · 2013: 88 · 2012: 87
- FWCI
- 48.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Leicester Research Archive (University of Leicester) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- European Commission
- Darwin Initiative
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- Office of Naval Research
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Fire effects on ecosystems
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Peatlands and Wetlands Ecology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Oil Palm Production and Sustainability
- Keywords
- peatland fires, CO2 emissions, tropical peatlands, peat swamp forest, 1997-1998 El Niño, Central Kalimantan, Borneo, burn depth, vegetation burning, atmospheric CO2 increase, climate change, peatland drainage, forest clearing
- MeSH terms
- Atmosphere, Carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Fires, Indonesia, Soil, Time Factors, Trees, Satellite Communications
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