近日，美国麻省理工学院教授Cobb, Alexander R.及其团队的最新研究给出了凸起泥炭地形态的统一解释。相关论文于2023年12月13日发表于国际顶尖学术期刊《自然》杂志上。

研究人员展示了一个基于沼泽通用过程的公式，解释了从阿拉斯加，贯穿热带地区，到新西兰的整个生物群落的形态。早期的沼泽形态模型只试图描述长期平衡的形态，不适用于大多数沼泽，与之相反的是研究人员使用的方法没有这样的假设，并且可以从高程样本(如单一高程横断面)中推断出沼泽的完整形态。研究结果为定量推断地球历史上沼泽的形态、水文和碳储量提供了基础，也为通过重新湿润世界各地受损的沼泽来规划自然气候解决方案提供了基础。

据悉，凸起的泥炭地，或沼泽是一种完全由有机物质组成的平缓丘状地貌，并且它也是陆地生态系统中，单位面积储存碳最多的地貌。沼泽的形状至关重要，因为其圆顶形态占了沼泽储存的大部分碳的比例，沼泽储存和决定它们将如何应对人为排水后阻止温室的气体排放和火灾的干预。然而，目前的研究仍然缺乏推断沼泽形态的基础理论。

附：英文原文

Title: A unified explanation for the morphology of raised peatlands

Author: Cobb, Alexander R., Dommain, Ren, Yeap, Kimberly, Hannan, Cao, Dadap, Nathan C., Bookhagen, Bodo, Glaser, Paul H., Harvey, Charles F.

Issue&Volume: 2023-12-13

Abstract: Raised peatlands, or bogs, are gently mounded landforms that are composed entirely of organic matter and store the most carbon per area of any terrestrial ecosystem. The shapes of bogs are critically important because their domed morphology accounts for much of the carbon that bogs store and determines how they will respond to interventions to stop greenhouse gas emissions and fires after anthropogenic drainage. However, a general theory to infer the morphology of bogs is still lacking. Here we show that an equation based on the processes universal to bogs explains their morphology across biomes, from Alaska, through the tropics, to New Zealand. In contrast to earlier models of bog morphology that attempted to describe only long-term equilibrium shapes and were, therefore, inapplicable to most bogs, our approach makes no such assumption and makes it possible to infer full shapes of bogs from a sample of elevations, such as a single elevation transect. Our findings provide a foundation for quantitative inference about the morphology, hydrology and carbon storage of bogs through Earth’s history, as well as a basis for planning natural climate solutions by rewetting damaged bogs around the world.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06807-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06807-w