Ancient carbon leaks from African lakes, raising climate concerns
Scientists just discovered that two lakes in Africa's Congo Basin—Lakes Mai Ndombe and Tumba—are releasing carbon dioxide that's thousands of years old.
Up to 40% of the CO2 coming from these lakes is actually ancient carbon stored in deep peat deposits, which could have a bigger impact on climate change than we thought.
Peatlands are huge carbon vaults
Peatlands might look like regular swamps, but they're actually huge carbon vaults—the Congo Basin's swamps and peatlands hold about a third of the carbon stored in tropical peatlands, even though they cover about 0.3% of Earth's land surface.
But as climate change brings more droughts and humans clear forests for farming, these peatlands dry out and release even more CO2.
The study suggests we need to pay closer attention to these hidden ecosystems if we want to tackle global warming.