Mountain wetland soil carbon stocks of Huascarán National Park, Peru

Wetlands in Huascarán National Park, Peru, store 24.4 Tg of carbon, with peatlands accounting for 97% and wet meadows just 3%. This stark contrast highlights the disproportionate carbon storage capacity of peatlands compared to wet meadows. The study employed stratified randomized sampling, combining full peat cores with a rapid sampling protocol to efficiently estimate carbon stocks across four wetland types: cushion peat, graminoid peat, cushion wet meadow, and graminoid wet meadow. Findings validate rapid peat sampling as an effective method for remote fieldwork, offering a scalable approach for monitoring wetland carbon stocks. This research provides critical data for land-use planning and climate policy, emphasizing the need to prioritize peatland conservation in high-altitude tropical regions.

Chimner, R. A., Resh, S. C., Hribljan, J. A., Battaglia, M., Bourgeau-Chavez, L., Bowser, G., & Lilleskov, E. A. (2023). Mountain wetland soil carbon stocks of Huascarán National Park, Peru. Frontiers in Plant Science, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2023.1048609