Skip to main content
What types of page to search?

Popular pages: Undergraduate Postgraduate PhD Accommodation Research International students

Alternatively use our A-Z index.

Jamie Hartup

Quantifying and conserving West Papuan wetland forests

Name: Jamie Hartup
Primary Supervisor: Dr Freddie Draper
Year: 2
Discipline: Environmental science
Presentation type: Poster
Project Title: Quantifying and conserving West Papuan wetland forests

Abstract:

New Guinea is the second largest and most floristically diverse island on Earth1. It is home to vast floodplain forests which overlie peat soils that may be far deeper than currently thought 2. Peat forests in Papua (Indonesian New Guinea) are the greatest uncertainty for forest carbon accounting in Indonesia3 and may be the largest unaccounted component of global tropical peat forests, which are currently thought to extend across 440,000 km2 and store 105Gt of carbon4. Despite this gap, existing maps 5 lack field data and government planning based on flawed data risks massive losses of carbon and endemic biodiversity. 

I have collated >600 peat depth measurements across three locations in Papua by digitising archival surveys. I have also collated >1700 peat presence/absence records from other sources. I will use machine-learning to classify satellite remote-sensing data to map peatland forests in Papua to quantify their extent, carbon stock, potential risks.

References:

  1. Cámara-Leret, R. et al. New Guinea has the world’s richest island flora. Nature 2020 584:7822 584, 579–583 (2020).
  2. Johns, R., Shea, G. & Puradyatmika, P. Lowland Swamp and Peat Vegetation of Papua. in The Ecology of Papua Part Two (eds. Marshell, A. J. & Beehler, B. M.) 910–944 (Periplus Editions, Singapore, 2007).
  3. Uda, S. K., Hein, L. & Sumarga, E. Towards sustainable management of Indonesian tropical peatlands. Wetl Ecol Manag 25, 683–701 (2017).
  4. Page, S. et al. Anthropogenic impacts on lowland tropical peatland biogeochemistry. Nat Rev Earth Environ 3, 426–443 (2022).
  5. Anda, M. et al. Revisiting tropical peatlands in Indonesia: Semi-detailed mapping, extent and depth distribution assessment. Geoderma 402, 115235 (2021).