Tropical Peatland Wildfires Reach Two-Millennium High as Human Activity Disrupts Global Carbon Storage

Exeter researchers find a dramatic surge in tropical peatland fires due to human activity, threatening global carbon storage after a 1,000-year decline.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 17, 2026, 8:36 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from the University of Exeter

The Critical Role of Peatland Carbon Reservoirs

Tropical peatlands represent one of the planet's most significant yet fragile carbon defenses, storing more carbon beneath the Earth’s surface than all global forest biomass combined. These waterlogged ecosystems act as a permanent vault for organic matter, but their stability is increasingly under threat. When peatlands catch fire, they do not merely burn surface vegetation; they ignite the carbon-dense soil itself, releasing centuries of stored emissions into the atmosphere. According to the University of Exeter, understanding the historical frequency of these fires is essential to predicting the future of global warming.

A Two-Millennium Historical Reconstruction

To map the history of these fire events, researchers analyzed charcoal records preserved within peat deposits across Central and South America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Australasia. This data allowed the team to reconstruct wildfire activity stretching back more than 2,000 years. Historically, fire patterns were strictly governed by natural climate fluctuations, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the severity of seasonal droughts. For over a millennium, wildfire activity actually showed a steady decline, moving in sync with global temperature cooling and other natural climate variables.

The 20th Century Inflection Point

The study identified a dramatic and "unprecedented" reversal of this cooling trend during the last century. The surge in wildfire activity observed in the 20th century represents a sharp departure from the natural fire regimes that characterized the previous two millennia. While climate remains a factor, the scale and speed of this increase point toward a new dominant driver. Researchers found that the modern fire surge is not a global phenomenon across all peatlands, but is heavily concentrated in specific regions where human intervention has fundamentally altered the landscape.