Tropical peatlands are important
carbon stores that are vulnerable to drainage and conversion to agriculture. Protection and restoration of peatlands are increasingly recognised as key nature based solutions that can be implemented as part of climate change mitigation. Identification of peatland areas that are important for protection and restauration with regards to the state of their
carbon stocks, are therefore vital for policy makers. In this paper we combined organic geochemical analysis by Rock-Eval (6) pyrolysis of
peat collected from sites with different land management history and optical remote sensing products to assess if remotely sensed data could be used to predict
peat conditions and
carbon storage. The study used the North Selangor
Peat Swamp forest, Malaysia, as the model system. Across the sampling sites the
carbon stocks in the below ground
peat was ca 12 times higher than the forest (median
carbon stock held in ground vegetation 114.70 Mg ha-1 and
peat soil 1401.51 Mg ha-1).
Peat core sub-samples and litter collected from Fire Affected, Disturbed Forest, and Managed Recovery locations (i.e. disturbed sites) had different decomposition profiles than Central Forest sites. The Rock-Eval pyrolysis of the upper
peat profiles showed that surface
peat layers at Fire Affected, Disturbed Forest, and Managed Recovery locations had lower immature organic matter index (I-index) values (average I-index range in upper section 0.15 to -0.06) and higher refractory organic matter index (R -index) (average R-index range in upper section 0.51 to 0.65) compared to Central Forest sites indicating enhanced decomposition of the surface
peat. In the top 50 cm section of the
peat profile,
carbon stocks were negatively related to the normalised
burns ratio (
NBR) (a satellite derived parameter) (Spearman's rho = -0.664, S = 366, p-value = <0.05) while there was a positive relationship between the
hydrogen index and the normalised
burns ratio profile (Spearman's rho = 0.7, S = 66, p-value = <0.05) suggesting that this remotely sensed product is able to detect degradation of
peat in the upper
peat profile. We conclude that the NBR can be used to identify degraded peatland areas and to support identification of areas for conversation and restoration.