Environmental dynamics and carbon accumulation rate of a tropical peatland in Central Sumatra, Indonesia Kartika Anggi Hapsari a, * , Siria Biagioni a , Tim C. Jennerjahn b , Peter Meyer Reimer c , Asmadi Saad d , Yudhi Achnopha d , Supiandi Sabiham e , Hermann Behling a a University of Goettingen, Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, Germany b Department of Biogeochemistry and Geology, Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT), Bremen, Germany c Department of Biological Science, Goshen College, Goshen, IN, USA d Department of Soil Science, University of Jambi, Jambi, Indonesia e Department of Soil Science and Land Resource, Bogor Agriculture University (IPB), Bogor, Indonesia article info Article history: Received 24 February 2017 Accepted 30 May 2017 Keywords: Holocene Palaeoecology Southeastern asia Vegetation dynamics Stable isotopes Peatland C accumulation rate Ecological process Controlling factor Sumatra abstract Tropical peatlands are important for the global carbon cycle as they store 18% of the total global peat carbon. As they are vulnerable to changes in temperature and precipitation, a rapidly changing envi- ronment endangers peatlands and their carbon storage potential. Understanding the mechanisms of peatland carbon accumulation from studying past developments may, therefore, help to assess the future role of tropical peatlands. Using a multi-proxy palaeoecological approach, a peat core taken from the Sungai Buluh peatland in Central Sumatra has been analyzed for its pollen and spore, macro charcoal and biogeochemical composition. The result suggests that peat and C accumulation rates were driven mainly by sea level change, river water level, climatic variability and anthropogenic activities. It is also suggested that peat C accumulation in Sungai Buluh is correlated to the abundance of Freycinetia, Myrtaceae, Calophyllum, Stemonuraceae, Ficus and Euphorbiaceae. Sungai Buluh has reasonable potential for being a future global tropical peat C sinks. However, considering the impact of rapid global climate change in addition to land-use change following rapid economic growth in Indonesia, such potential may be lost. Taking advantage of available palaeoecological records and advances made in Quaternary studies, some considerations for management practice such as identification of priority taxa and conservation sites are suggested. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Peatlands play a major role in the global carbon cycle by storing around 600 Gt carbon or one third of the total global carbon pool (Gorham, 1991; Yu et al., 2011). Around 18% of the global peat carbon pool is stored in tropical regions, with around 65% stored in SE Asia (Page et al., 2011; Dargie et al., 2017). In SE Asia the largest share of tropical peat carbon is stored in Indonesia, with an esti- mated 57.4 Gt making up 65% of the total peat carbon in the tropics (Page et al., 2011). The estimation, however, cannot be precisely made due to limited information about the peat basal ages and the rates of carbon accumulation (Page et al., 2004; Dommain et al., 2011). SE Asian peatlands are distributed mainly in the river deltas and coastal plains of the islands of Sumatra and Borneo (Dommain et al., 2011; Veloo et al., 2014). Due to land use con- version and drainage following the economic growth of Indonesia, the existence of these peatlands is endangered (Miettinen et al., 2012). Peatlands are sensitive to changes in precipitation and tem- perature, and are therefore vulnerable to global climate change (Page et al., 2011). A decrease in precipitation and an increase in temperature can lower the water table in peatlands, which in turn can increase the decomposition rate of the accumulated organic material (OM; Couwenberg et al., 2010). An experimental study in a peatland in Manitoba, Canada suggests that a temperature increase of 4  C would cause a 40e80% loss of organic carbon due to water- table lowering (Ise et al., 2008). An approximate 30% decrease in annual mean C accumulation following a three years-long 60% precipitation reduction is reported from a study in Switzerland (Bragazza et al., 2016). * Corresponding author. E-mail address: kartika.hapsari@biologie.uni-goettingen.de (K.A. Hapsari). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary Science Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quascirev http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.05.026 0277-3791/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Quaternary Science Reviews 169 (2017) 173e187