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The ecoregion covers an area of 3,600 square kilometers (1,400 sq mi) on both the eastern and western sides of the peninsula. The peat swamp forests have formed over hundreds of years, as sediment and organic debris deposited by rivers are trapped behind mangroves, gradually building up a layer of waterlogged, acidic, nutrient-poor soil.
Peat swamp forests occur where waterlogged soils prevent dead leaves and wood from fully decomposing, which over time creates thick layer of acidic peat.The peat swamp forests on Borneo occur in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan, the Malaysian state of Sarawak and in the Belait District of Brunei on coastal lowlands, built up behind the brackish mangrove forests and bounded by the Borneo ...
Peat fires, drainage and deforestation enhances the decomposition of soil organic matter, increasing the release of stored carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. [ 4 ] Tropical peat swamp forests are home to thousands of animals and plants, including many rare and critically endangered species such as the orangutan and Sumatran tiger ...
Before setting up the tropical peat research institute, the Sarawak government was concerned with international non-governmental organisations (NGO) lobbying in Europe that calls for an import ban of palm oil coming from tropical peatlands because of the claims that cultivation of oil palms on peatland contributes to global greenhouse gases emissions. [9]
[42] [43] An estimate derived from the digital soil database of Russia at a geographical scale of 1:5 million, [44] indicates that the area of soils with a peat depth of more than 30 cm is nearly 2210×10 3 km 2. Approximately 28% occurs in the zone of seasonally frozen soils, nearly 30% in the zone of sporadic and discontinuous permafrost, and ...
Tropical peat is a type of histosol that is found in tropical latitudes, including South East Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. [2] Tropical peat mostly consists of dead organic matter from trees instead of spaghnum which are commonly found in temperate peat. [ 3 ]
Peat forms under waterlogged conditions in peat swamp forests such as this one in Raja Musa Forest Reserve, Selangor, Malaysia. A peatland is an area where organic material such as leaves and twigs had accumulated naturally under waterlogged conditions in the last 10,000 years. This layer of organic material, known as peat, can
[citation needed] Peat is discouraged as a soil amendment by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, since 2003. [32] While bark or coir-based peat-free potting soil mixes are on the rise, particularly in the UK, peat is still used as raw material for horticulture in some other European countries, Canada, as well as parts of the United States.