Antonio Jonay Jovani Sancho

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology | CEH

There are limited data for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from smallholder agricultural systems in tropical peatlands, with data for non-CO2 emissions from human-influenced tropical peatlands particularly scarce. The aim of this study was to quantify soil CH4 and N2 O fluxes from smallholder agricultural systems on tropical peatlands in Southeast A...

Forest ecosystems are recognised as Natural Climate Solutions because forest soils are such important carbon stores, containing almost half of the total soil organic carbon of terrestrial ecosystems. Here we present the results of a synthesis of soil carbon stocks by World Reference Base soil group, and forest litter carbon stocks for afforested so...

Tropical peatlands store around one-sixth of the global peatland carbon pool (105 gigatonnes), equivalent to 30% of the carbon held in rainforest vegetation. Deforestation, drainage, fire and conversion to agricultural land threaten these ecosystems and their role in carbon sequestration. In this Review, we discuss the biogeochemistry of tropical p...

Drainage and conversion of natural peatlands into forestry increases soil CO2 emissions through decomposition of peat and modifies the quantity and quality of litter inputs and therefore the soil carbon balance. In organic soils, CO2 net emissions and removals, are reported using carbon emission factors (EF). The choice of specific default Tier 1 E...

With the escalation of the problem of plastic pollution at an alarming rate, the increase in research on bioplastics has been notable. Bioplastics made from starch and protein blends have been found to have biodegradable properties, but the majority use non-sustainable starch sources. While bioplastics show biodegradation ability, it is equally vit...

Peatlands of the central Congo Basin have accumulated carbon over millennia. They currently store some 29 billion tonnes of carbon in peat. However, our understanding of the controls on peat carbon accumulation and loss and the vulnerability of this stored carbon to climate change is in its infancy. Here we present a new model of tropical peatland...

Peatland surface motion derived from satellite-based Interferometry of Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is potentially a proxy for groundwater level variations and greenhouse gas emissions from peat soils. Ground validation of these motions at equivalent temporal resolution and accuracy has proven problematic because of limitations of traditional s...

Tropical peatland condition across southeast Asia is deteriorating as a result of conversion to agriculture and urban zones. Conversion begins by lowering the water table, which leads to peat decomposition, subsidence and increased risk of large-scale forest fires. Associated changes in mechanical peat properties impact the magnitude and timing of...

Inundation dynamics are the primary control on greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands. Situated in the central Congo Basin, the Cuvette Centrale is the largest tropical peatland complex. However, our knowledge of the spatial and temporal variations in its water levels is limited. By addressing this gap, we can quantify the relationship between the...

La Cuvette centrale est le plus vaste complexe de tourbières tropicales au monde, qui s'étend sur environ 145 000 km2 en République du Congo et en République démocratique du Congo. Ce complexe stocke environ 30,6 Pg C, soit l'équivalent de trois années d'émissions mondiales de dioxyde de carbone, et représente désormais le premier site Ramsar trans...

Scientists are working to find new, greener ways to replace or minimise unsustainable plastics, resulting in a growing global interest in alternative polymers. Agriculture, food processing, biomedical, and electrical industries are among the industries that are beginning to use bioplastics. Bioplastics made from starch and protein polymers have bee...

Peat soils are known to be the most capable soil type to store a huge amount of carbon. However, peatland ecosystems are often disturbed by anthropogenic activities such as excessive water drainage, leading to rapid peat subsidence and carbon loss. Due to its dynamic properties, peatland ecosystem needs to be monitored over time to prevent unwanted...

Peat swamp forest is an important ecosystem in global climate change through its high carbon content and role as a carbon sink. In peat swamp forest, there is a near-closed cycle of nutrients including carbon. In order to better understand the rate of plant litter production and decomposition, a study was carried out in three secondary peat swamp f...

Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems on Earth, and their water storage dynamics strongly control these carbon stocks. The hydrological functioning of tropical peatlands differs from that of northern peatlands, which has not yet been accounted for in global land surface models (LSMs). Here, we integrated tropical peat-specific...

The Cuvette Centrale is the largest tropical peatland complex in the world, covering approximately 145,000 km2 across the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It stores ca. 30.6 Pg C, the equivalent of three years of global carbon dioxide emis- sions and is now the first trans-natio- nal Ramsar site. Despite its size and importan...

This study utilized site-specific peat hydrophysical properties (inverse of air-entry pressure (α), pore size distribution index (n), saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) and pore tortuosity (L)) as inputs into the HYDRUS 1-D computer model for quantifying moss moisture stresses on Irish peatlands. The site-specific peat hydrophysical properties c...

Tropical peatlands are among the most carbon-dense ecosystems on Earth, and their water storage dynamics strongly control these carbon stocks. The hydrological functioning of tropical peatlands differs from that of northern peatlands, which has not yet been accounted for in global land surface models (LSMs). Here, we integrated tropical peat-specif...

About half of the world's tropical peatlands occur in Southeast (SE) Asia, where they serve as a major carbon (C) sink. Nearly 80% of natural peatlands in this region have been deforested and drained, with the majority under plantations and agriculture. This conversion increases peat oxidation which contributes to rapid C loss to the atmosphere as...

Peatlands are highly dynamic systems, able to accumulate carbon over millennia under natural conditions, but susceptible to rapid subsidence and carbon loss when drained. Short-term, seasonal and long-term peat surface elevation changes are closely linked to key peatland attributes such as water table depth (WTD) and carbon balance, and may be meas...

Oil palm governance has attracted significant research attention. However, the impact of this work on palm oil governance remains patchy. In part, this is linked to trends in palm oil research, which focus on the conservation-development binary that limits exploration of the practices whereby actors in different sites work out oil palm governance....

The evolution of soil terrestrial ecosystems is a subject with difficulties to define their maturity and evolutionary state. In the last century, thermodynamics was one of the options considered by ecologists for that goal. Difficulties in quantifying the thermodynamic parameters needed by the evolutionary theories caused that this subject has been...

Understanding and quantifying soil respiration and its component fluxes are necessary to model global carbon cycling in a changing climate as small changes in soil CO2 fluxes could have important implications for future climatic conditions. A soil respiration partitioning study was conducted in eight afforested peatland sites in south-west Ireland....

Total soil respiration (RTOT) and its components fluxes: autotrophic respiration (RA) and heterotrophic respiration (RH) need to be quantified because they are an important process contributing 60–80% of all ecosystem respiration. Although RTOT is influenced by many environmental factors, the main controlling factors are soil temperature and soil m...

Using collars for measuring soil respiration and its component fluxes in closed chamber systems relies on two main assumptions. Firstly, it is assumed that shallow collars prevent lateral soil gas leakage beneath the chamber’s walls and the underestimation of soil CO2 fluxes, and secondly, the insertion of deeper collars excises all living roots an...

Inventories of forest soil carbon (C) stocks are necessary to determine spatial and temporal C stock changes and support climate change mitigation policy development. Afforested podzols and peaty podzols were sampled to measure bulk density (BD) and soil organic carbon (SOC) content with the aim of improving baseline soil C stock estimates for Iris...