What are Peatlands?

South America’s peatland marshes represent approximately 11% of the world’s peat reservoirs. They are largely intact and therefore have significant carbon-trapping potential, being situated in sparsely populated areas such as Patagonia.[1]

Peatlands in Chilean Patagonia, for example, contain approximately 4,800 million tons of carbon accumulated over ~18,000 years, which represents ~4.7 more carbon than the air biomass of the entire country’s forests.[2] Peatlands in Argentina complement and expand these numbers, especially in Tierra del Fuego, which (according to existing data) contains 95% of this country’s peatlands, concentrated on the eastern side of the island.[3] In both Argentina and Chile, these peatlands provide water services that are critical at a local level and are substantial contributions for mitigating climate change. At a local scale, peatlands represent massive water reserves and play a fundamental role in maintaining these basins’ hydrological cycles, in addition to being a habitat for diverse species of animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms.

Despite their local and global significance, there are still important knowledge gaps regarding peatlands. The exact location and taxonomy of these ecosystems remains unknown, as well as their size, carbon contents, hydrological processes, and ecological processes, among others. Patagonian peatlands are facing diverse threats, including peat mining, the unsustainable extraction of moss, the invasion of beavers, and the effects of climate change. The degradation of peatlands generates an emission of greenhouse gasses and alters the entire basin’s ecology. Peatlands have a long geo-ecological dynamic and can take thousands of years to come into existence, so their destruction is generally irreversible.