C-PEAT's Global Peatland Carbon Database (v.2025)

Abstract

Abstract. Field-based measurements are foundational to the study of short- and long-term peatland carbon dynamics. For decades, the scientific community has amassed hundreds of valuable empirical datasets in the form of peat core records from around the world. Those records typically include peat depth, basal age, peat organic matter content, peat dry bulk density, peat organic density, and/or carbon and nitrogen content. Once combined with chronological constraints and models, peat core time series can be used to estimate changes in peat-carbon accumulation rates through time. Consolidating these peat records can help improve global peat-carbon stock estimates and quantifications of past, present, and future greenhouse gas exchanges between peatlands and the atmosphere. Large-scale synthesis can also shed light on the sensitivity of peat-carbon accumulation processes to climate change and provide context for current and future global environmental change. We can also use spatial and temporal peat data to inform, validate, and benchmark existing models that include peatland representations. This paper presents the first formal version of PAGES' C-PEAT Global Peatland Carbon Database (GD), which is available for download in the PANGAEA and International Soil Carbon Network (ISCN) data repositories. The C-PEAT GD contains 267 independently catalogued peat cores and a large number of observations from those cores, including: peat depths, organic matter content values, dry bulk density values, organic density values, as well as carbon and nitrogen content values. Raw and calibrated chronological data are included for each individual dataset when available. The metadata fields are easily searchable and interoperable, as per PANGAEA's standards. The main objective of this article is to describe the structure and content of the database, itself aimed at increasing the use, assimilation, and interoperability of peat-core data across disciplines. The C-PEAT GD can be accessed at the PANGAEA data repository (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.986891; Loisel et al., 2025).