About This Project

In the Peruvian Andes it is currently almost impossible to find pristine peatlands to study their natural dynamics. Using satellite images we were able to find what we believe are peatlands untouched by humans, located in the Northern Vilcabamba Cordillera (Otishi National Park). With this project we will confirm if the preliminarly identified sites are peatlands, and will take samples to account their carbon content and install water wells, all to understand peatlands natural variability.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Nowadays, the environmental and social consequences of climate change, lead us to look for ways to understand, control and mitigate gas emissions. The care and preservation of peatlands could be part of the solution as they have accumulated large amounts of carbon throughout thousands of years.

In Peruvian Andes, there exist numerous places with peatlands; however, study in this region is particularly hard. Identifying appropriate sites to assess the independent effects of climate and human intervention is very difficult, because almost all the Andean territory was historically occupied. Nevertheless, the northern areas of the Vilcabamba Cordillera remains isolated, offering an ideal place to study some peatlands affected only by climatic issues.

What is the significance of this project?

Finding "natural labs" were the human activity is very low (or ideally null) is important to accurately identify the influence of the human intervention in the changes experienced by Andean peatlands and other mountain ecosystems.

The most significant finding of this project would be confirmation of the existence of these “natural labs” in the Otishi National Park.

If the results are positive, we will take core samples, and instrument with water level installations some of these peatlands, because we requires register both: the change patterns experienced by the ecosystems in absence of human pressure and the modifications in the dynamics occurred by the synergy between the environmental instability and the human influence, to propose the best management strategies

What are the goals of the project?

The principal goal of the project is to confirm certain parts of the Vilcabamba mountains in the Otishi National Park (and the Comunitary Reserves that surrounding the National Park) are pristine mountain peatlands. This area represent some difficulties because of its high isolation, high humidity and scarce information, all of which limit access to high quality satellite images.

If, during field work, the team confirms the peatlands presence on the area, we will conduct three additional activities:

(i) A preliminary register of depth transects in the peatlands visited that allows to know (preliminarly) the volume of the peat body
(ii) Take some core samples to quantify the carbon stored, and (possibly) date the peatland age
(iii) Wells installation, to register groundwater fluctuation