A University of Oregon-led research team has identified tropical peatland in Indonesia that is twice as old and much deeper than previously thought.
A University of Oregon-led research team has identified tropical peatland in Indonesia that is twice as old and much deeper than previously thought.
The findings, published in Environmental Research Letters, provide new insights about the climate of equatorial rainforests, especially during the last ice age, said study co-author Dan Gavin, a professor of in the Department of Geography.
At an inland site on Borneo, near the northern city of Putussibau, researchers found peatland that formed at least 47,800 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating. The site is 18 meters deep, roughly the height of a six-story building.
Read more at: University of Oregon
University of Oregon doctoral student Monika Ruwaimana, right, collects peat core samples with team members at a site on Borneo. The team's study, published in Environmental Research Letters, resets the dating of what may the world's oldest peatlands and provides an archive of new data on climate changes in the tropical peat. (Photo Credit: Dan Gavin)
