Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences最新文献

{"title":"Fine-scale human-flood relationships in the Congo Basin: ethnographic perspectives from the Lac Télé Community Reserve.","authors":"Katherine Meier, Milena Beekmann, Tiriel Lokoka Ngoma, Célie-Léoda Moungouya-Moukassa, Bola Madzoke","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0491","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The Likouala-aux-Herbes river and surrounding swamp forests of the northern Republic of Congo are described in scientific literature as a wetland forest system characterized by a bimodal flood pulse and widespread seasonal flooding. Recent climatic and hydrological modelling of the Congo Basin and Cuvette Centrale peatlands, moreover, positions the Likouala region as a rain-fed or ombrotrophic peatland. However, human populations experience and adapt to flooding at a more localized scale. This study presents ethnographic data on flooding and seasonality from six villages within the Lac Télé Community Reserve (LTCR), a protected area in the Likouala swamp forest biome and the country's only Community Reserve. Our findings reveal how spatio-temporally variable flooding produces village-specific cultures, livelihood cycles, adaptations and vulnerabilities-an interconnected gradient of biocultural relationships. Across villages, flood dynamics have changed drastically over the last decades. Climate change, economic transitions and erosion of local knowledge systems are straining long-standing adaptive frameworks within and between LTCR communities. We emphasize the importance of ethnographic data in understanding fine-scale human-environment interactions and suggest that biocultural analysis at this scale-what we term the 'hydrocultural patch'-is essential for effective landscape governance and policy development in the context of accelerating climate change. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material.         This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Species-specific wood density improves biomass estimation in Congo Basin peatland forests.","authors":"Yannick Enock Bocko, Grace Jopaul Loubota Panzou, Greta Christina Dargie, Jealphée Annice Bibi-Loumoni, Yeto Emmanuel Wenina Mampouya, Mackline Mbemba, Dafydd E Crabtree, Nick T Girkin, Donna Hawthorne, Matteo Sciumbata, Bart Crezee, Selena Georgiou, Dylan M Young, Sarah Chadburn, Arnoud Boom, Peter Cook, Richard Betts, Enno Schefuß, Eleanor Burke, Pauline Gulliver, Andy J Baird, Paul J Morris, Corneille E N Ewango, A Jonay Jovani-Sancho, Suspense A Ifo, Yannick Garcin, Ian T Lawson, Sofie Sjögersten, Susan E Page, Jean Joël Loumeto, Simon L Lewis","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0484","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0484","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The central Congo Basin hosts the world's largest tropical peat swamp forest (PSF), covering 167 600 km² and storing approximately 29 Pg of carbon below ground. However, estimates of above ground biomass (AGB) remain limited, partly owing to reliance on global wood density (WD) databases that may not reflect local species characteristics. This study assessed the impact of species-specific WD on AGB estimation in five PSF sites of the northern Republic of Congo. Specific WD was collected in one site, and these data were then used to estimate AGB in four additional sites. We collected wood cores using an increment borer from 244 trees to measure the WD of the 20 most abundant species (93% of trees with diameters ≥10 cm). Using global WD values overestimated AGB by 24.7% (p < 0.05). The low average local WD (0.460 ± 0.12 g cm-3) explained this difference. The WD variation was primarily species-driven (58%) and associated with functional traits; pioneer and evergreen species had lower WD. These findings highlight the importance of locally measured WD for accurate biomass and carbon stock estimation in tropical peatland forests. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805293","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Peatlands across the African continent.","authors":"Greta Dargie, George Biddulph, Ian Lawson, Susan E Page, Edward T A Mitchard, Yannick Enock Bocko, Suspense Ifo, Simon L Lewis","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0476","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Little is known about the distribution and characteristics of Africa's peatlands, despite many reports of peat in Africa. We review the literature on African peatlands, identifying over 600 sources, to provide a synthesis of present knowledge and identify substantive research gaps. Peatlands are reported for 42 of the 54 African countries, and are found in coastal, mountainous and lowland interior settings. Countries with no reports of peatlands are typically in the arid Sahel/Sahara region. Most peatlands across Africa are small, discrete areas, but three large peatland complexes have been identified: the Cuvette Centrale in the central Congo Basin, the Sudd in South Sudan, and the Okavango Delta in Botswana. In terms of biodiversity, true peatland endemics appear to be rare in Africa. Peatland degradation occurs across Africa, with agriculture, overgrazing and peat cutting being key drivers. The three large peatland complexes in the Cuvette Centrale, Sudd and Okavango Delta appear relatively intact, but face potential threats including climatic drying, hydraulic engineering projects that change river courses or discharge, and hydrocarbon exploration. A priority is ground data collection so that African peatlands can be properly documented and mapped; without knowing their specific location, good management and protection will be challenging. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Oil spills and invasive species drive losses in Nigeria's mangrove forests.","authors":"Lola Fatoyinbo, Abigail Barenblitt, Celio de Sousa, Atticus Stovall, Liza Goldberg, David Lagomasino, Nathan Thomas, Chukwuebuka Nwobi, Nenibarini Zabbey","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0480","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0480","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mangrove forests are important organic carbon sinks and provide many ecosystem services. However, data on historic extent, biodiversity and carbon stocks remain scarce, especially in Nigeria, the country with the fifth-largest mangrove area globally. Here, we integrate field surveys, remote sensing data (from 40 years of Landsat satellite imagery, TanDEM-X InSAR, GEDI, high-resolution imagery, ALOS/PALSAR and Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar) and numerical modelling to assess changes in mangrove extent, the drivers of change as well as the impact on past and future carbon fluxes. We estimate a total mangrove area of 957 747 ha for 2023 and a 4.5% loss of Nigeria's total mangrove area from 1990 to 2023. By 2023, almost 10% of Nigeria's mangroves-93 178 ha-are dominated by the invasive mangrove palm, Nypa fruticans, which expanded by 70 000 ha in just 15 years. Oil spill pollution was the direct cause of at least 37% of all mangrove ecosystem loss and the main driver of loss in the Niger Delta. These findings indicate that Nigeria has experienced the third-largest loss of mangrove cover extent globally, after Indonesia and Australia. We found that the total cumulative emissions from mangrove conversion from 1995 to 2023 were 48.62 Tg CO2eq, equivalent to almost 40% of Nigeria's annual emissions in 2023. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the Discussion Meeting Issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805541","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How people use the peat swamp forests of the central Congo Basin.","authors":"Cassandra Dummett, Ovide Emba Botuli, Shona J Jenkins, Eustache Amboulou, Joe F Langley, Jonas Ngouhouo-Poufoun, Corneille E N Ewango, Suspense Ifo, Simon Lewis","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0489","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0489","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The central Congo Basin peatlands span 167 600 km2 and are the world's largest tropical peatlands. Hundreds of thousands of people live in the vicinity of the peatlands, but studies of how people use the peatlands do not, to our knowledge, exist. This article investigates people's use of peat swamp forests in three study sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of the Congo. Using participatory methods, we interviewed 407 people and learned that 100% of households use the peat swamp forest for fishing. Therefore, the peatlands are essential to people's well-being and health as fish are a major protein source. All households also used the peat swamp forest for at least one secondary activity, such as collecting wild food, timber, vines and medicinal plants or hunting. Interviewees and forest guides told us that the peat swamp forest has spiritual value. People considered their activities sustainable, supporting similar observations by peatland scientists. Continued use and access to the peat swamp forest is therefore essential for people's well-being. Formalizing the customary tenure of communities that use the peatlands could contribute to their long-term protection. This is important as policymakers consider options to protect the central Congo Basin peatlands. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805542","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A probabilistic map of tropical peatlands in the Angolan Highlands Water Tower.","authors":"Mauro Cesar Lourenco, Nathaniel Robinson, Rainer von Brandis, Suzana Bandeira, Ailene Kane Ettinger, Götz Neef, Sara Leavitt, Sekgowa Motsumi, Rutledge Boyes, Stephan Woodborne","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0481","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Peatlands provide critical ecosystem services, including habitat for biodiversity, water purification and climate regulation. Tropical peatlands in Africa present significant knowledge gaps in occurrence and extent estimates, and there is a lack of policy initiatives related to conservation and sustainable management. This study expands on a previous peatland extent estimate for the Angolan Highlands by extending the geographic scope to include the Angolan Highlands Water Tower (AHWT). We identified 51 ground-verified peat locations, using a peat corer, in multiple areas of the region during 5 separate field expeditions conducted between 2019 and 2023. These locations were used to independently evaluate an unsupervised classification model. The model incorporates satellite-derived vegetation and moisture indices (NDVI, NDWI), vegetation stress indices and terrain-based variables (including the Topographic Position Index) that capture key controls on peat formation in the AHWT. We generated a probabilistic map of potential peatland occurrence, estimating that peatlands cover between 8662 km2 (high certainty) and 11 167 km2 (low certainty), or 2.28-2.94% of the AHWT. The map was evaluated against field observations: all 51 ground-verified peat locations fell within areas predicted to have at least 50% peat probability (mean = 85.7%, s.d. = 20.4%). The resulting map offers a baseline for future field validation, carbon stock assessment and conservation planning. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Insights into Holocene peat decomposition, vulnerability and vegetation change in the central Congo Basin.","authors":"Donna Hawthorne, Johanna Menges, Arnoud Boom, Brian Chase, Kirby Robinson, Genevieve Tyrrell, Greta C Dargie, Nicholas Girkin, Bart Crezee, Yannick Enock Bocko, Suspense Ifo, Ian T Lawson, Paul Morris, Pauline Gulliver, Simon L Lewis","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0477","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Central Africa's hydroclimate has experienced significant fluctuations over the past 20 000 years, having a marked impact on both humans and ecosystems. A drying trend between approximately 5000 and 2000 years ago caused peat decomposition, carbon release and a change in forest composition in the world's largest tropical peatland. Here, we investigate the nature of the peat decomposition and its impact on the peat swamp forest at four sites in the central Congo Basin peatlands. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, carbon-to-nitrogen ratios (C/N) and age-depth chronologies show that peat decomposition was characterized by the preferential degradation of aromatic compounds, resulting in major peat loss dated to between 7500 and 800 cal yr BP. Distinct site-specific responses, unique to interfluvial versus river floodplain peatlands, were probably shaped by the interaction of regional drying, local hydrological conditions and different patterns of vegetation succession. While our results reflect differing hydrological resilience, all sites showed substantial peat loss and a change in forest composition, underscoring the Congo peatlands' vulnerability to hydroclimate change. This provides important initial insights into the mechanisms of peat loss-knowledge that is necessary for peatland protection and restoration. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mobility and social resilience in the Cuvette Centrale peatlands.","authors":"Shona J Jenkins, Janet A Fisher, Edward T A Mitchard, Ovide Emba Botuli, Esther Bokungu, Greta Dargie, Susan E Page, Joe F Langley, Cassandra Dummett, Richard A Betts, Arnoud Boom, Suspense Ifo, Corneille E N Ewango, Ian Lawson, Lera Miles, Sofie Sjögersten, Simon L Lewis","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0488","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0488","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The cultures and livelihoods of communities whose customary lands include areas of the Cuvette Centrale peatlands are deeply entangled with seasonal rains and flood pulses. We conducted a mixed method qualitative study in a peatland-adjacent fishing camp in Équateur province in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Cuvette Centrale. Mobility is one way that local residents of this fishing camp cope with and adapt to a dynamic hydroclimate. Here, we explore the outcome of different mobility and livelihood strategies on resilience. We first show how local livelihood activities respond to seasonal variability in the local flooding regime. We then show four (im)mobility patterns and their associated livelihood strategies: long-term residents, short-distance mobility, fishing camp-village-town mobility and inter-river mobility. Lastly, we present how resilience outcomes vary using short vignettes of mobility histories of fishing camp residents. We identify the importance of local and translocal social networks as crucial elements for adapting to, and coping with change in a dynamic hydroclimate. Our findings challenge those unfamiliar with the Cuvette Centrale peatlands to avoid applying a sedentary agriculturalist lens to understand livelihood and resilience dynamics. We offer practical suggestions for how to account for mobility in future conservation and research initiatives in the context of the Cuvette Centrale peatlands. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805533","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Land-use change causes rapid carbon losses in Congo Basin peatlands across climate scenarios, whereas the effects of climate change alone are uncertain.","authors":"Dylan M Young, Andy J Baird, Paul J Morris, Eleanor Burke, Chris Smith, Jorge Ramirez, Greta C Dargie, Arnoud Boom, Richard A Betts, Yannick E Bocko, Peter Cook, Dafydd E Crabtree, Bart Crezee, Yannick Garcin, Selena Georgiou, Nicholas T Girkin, Pauline Gulliver, Donna Hawthorne, Ian T Lawson, Susan E Page, Enno Schefuß, Matteo Sciumbata, Sofie Sjögersten, Suspense A Ifo, Simon L Lewis","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0486","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>One of Earth's most extensive tropical peatland complexes is in the central Congo Basin. Past climatic drying caused the widespread loss of a large proportion of the peat carbon stock, indicating its vulnerability to climate change. However, the additional effect caused by the interaction of climate change with land-use change-particularly drainage-on peat carbon stores has not been assessed. Here, we simulate the effects of climate and land-use change on Congo Basin peatlands. Our model is driven by an ensemble of 10 climate models to assess changes in peat carbon stocks at global warming levels 1.5, 2, 3 and 4°C. We find that the fate of the peatland carbon store is highly uncertain when we simulate climate change alone (warming level 3°C gives a median change in peat thickness of 0.04 m; range of approx. -5.0 to +0.3 m). By contrast, simulations that couple land-use change with twenty-first-century climate change are unequivocal: the Congo Basin peatlands will become significant emitters of carbon. When the warming level is 3°C, the change in peat thickness of a drained peatland is projected to be -2.6 m; a range of approximately -5.0 to -2.1 m. Our results emphasize the need to protect Congo Basin peatlands from widespread land-use change. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Environmental controls over greenhouse gas dynamics of tropical peatlands of the Central Congo Basin.","authors":"Nicholas Girkin, Alice Johnston, Hayley Curran, Sofie Sjögersten, A Jonay Jovani-Sancho, Yannick Enock Bocko, Pierre Bola, Arnoud Boom, Hannah Cooper, Bart Crezee, Dafydd Egryn Crabtree, Greta Dargie, Ovide Emba Botuli, Joseph Kanyama, Ian Lawson, Yeto Emmanuel Wenina Mampouya, Mackline Mbemba, Vicky Moss-Hayes, Guy Rodrigue Mouanda Niamba, Susan E Page, Kirby Robinson, Christopher H Vane, Corneille E N Ewango, Suspense Ifo, Simon L Lewis","doi":"10.1098/rstb.2024.0482","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0482","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The central Congo Basin hosts the world's largest tropical peatland complex, storing 29.0 Pg of carbon, the equivalent to three years of global CO₂ emissions. These peatlands are significant natural sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), including CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O, but the environmental controls on their emissions remain poorly understood. To address this, we collected surface peat samples from six regional landscapes, spanning palm- and hardwood-dominated sites, and incubated them under three hydrological regimes: flooded aerobic, flooded anoxic and mesic (aerobic and no surface water). This allowed us to quantify how hydrology and peat chemistry (carbon, nutrients and organic chemistry) influence GHG dynamics. We observed strong differences in GHG production between vegetation types, and high sensitivity to hydrological change. Using random forest models, we assessed 27 potential drivers of GHG fluxes, identifying distinct controls across GHGs and hydrological regimes. Incubation of deeper peat samples (up to 1.5 m) highlighted that surface layers dominate peat GHG production. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that hydrology, vegetation, nutrients and peat organic chemistry shape regional GHG emissions, driving substantial spatial variability. Changes to peatland hydrology, for example from land use or climate change, could significantly shift GHG balances, with important implications for global climate feedbacks. A French translation of this abstract is available in the supplementary material. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'African tropical peatlands: function, value and vulnerability'.</p>","PeriodicalId":520748,"journal":{"name":"Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences","volume":"381 1956","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2026-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148805552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}