Following some earlier published global analysis there have been an interesting dialogue published in Global Change Biology. The underlying headline remain clear – the Twentieth Century rise in biomass burning of #tropical #peatlands represents the most pronounced increase over the last two millennia. Tropical peatland wildfire incidence has risen in recent decades, driven by drainage for land use and intensified by severe droughts with global #climate change. These disturbances have altered vegetation structure, disrupted #ecosystem functioning, and increased #carbon emissions. With the increase in #anthropogenic pressures on peatlands and greater climate variability, future wildfires in peatlands are likely to become more frequent and widespread across all tropical ecoregions. Conservation and sustainable land-use practices could be used to mitigate and control peatland burning and protect these carbon-rich sinks. Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI) Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity SEI – Stockholm Environment Institute
Charcoal as a Fire Reconstruction Proxyonlinelibrary.wiley.com
References
Mauquoy, D., T. Theurer, J. C. Aleman, et al. 2026. “ One Proxy to Rule Them All? The Use of Charcoal in Estimating Tropical Peatland Burning History.” Global Change Biology 32, no. 10: e71156. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.71156.
Wang Y, Feldpausch T, Swindles G, Moss P, McGowan H, Sim T, Morris P, Benfield A, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Wahl D, Montoya E, Githumbi E, Honorio Coronado E, Augustijns F, Verstraeten G, O’Donnell (Roe) J, Tibby J, Benavides J, Hapsari KA, Schittek K, Ramdzan KNM, Bao K, Cole LES, Anderson L, Gałka M, Emuobosa Akpo O, Strobel P, Ramya Bala P, Dommain R, Marchant R, Sukumar R, Chawchai S, Pullyottum Kavil S, Mooney S, Kelly TJ, Gao Y, Voulgarakis A, Boom A, Burton C, Berrio JC, Ribeiro K, Anderson L, Hardiman M, Spater M, Page S, Gallego-Sala A. 2026. Unprecedented burning in tropical peatlands during the 20th century compared to previous two millennia. Global Change Biology 32(3): e70717. [CC BY 4.0 Open Access] [FigShare Supplement] [Preprint version]
Wang Y, Feldpausch TR, Swindles GT, Marchant R, Courtney-Mustaphi C, Mooney S, Page SE, Dommain R, Gallego-Sala A. 2026. Charcoal as a fire reconstruction proxy. Global Change Biology 32(10): e71152. [© 2026 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.]