Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Hotspots of peatland-derived potable water use identified by global analysis

Nature Sustainability volume 1, pages 246–253 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Peatlands cover approximately 2.84% of the Earth’s land surface and store around 10% of all non-glacial freshwater. However, the contribution of peatlands to global potable water resources is unclear because most peatlands are remote from major population centres, and until now no systematic, global assessment of peatland water resources has been undertaken. Here we analyse global peatland, population and hydrometric datasets to identify hotspots where peatlands are crucial for water supply, and show that these peat-rich catchments deliver water to 71.4 million people. Water-supply peatlands cover just 0.0015% of the global land surface, yet provide 3.83% of all potable water stored in reservoirs. Approximately 85% of all drinking water delivered directly from peatlands is consumed in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, meaning that peatlands play crucial roles in the water security of these nations. Globally, only 28% of water-supply peatlands are pristine or protected, highlighting the urgent need for responsible stewardship. Our findings provide global evidence for the often assumed role of peatlands in sustainable water resource provision and for informing peatland water-resource protection policies.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Global PPI distribution at the catchment scale, calculated based on the proportion of peatland multiplied by the population density for each catchment.
Fig. 2: Global PRI distribution at the catchment scale.
Fig. 3: Distribution of PPI hotspot catchments and their nearby high PRI catchments in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Xu, J., Morris, P. J., Liu, J. & Holden, J. PEATMAP: refining estimates of global peatland distribution based on a meta-analysis. Catena 160, 134–140 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Parish, F. et al. Assessment on Peatlands, Biodiversity and Climate Change: Main Report (Global Environment Centre, 2008); http://www.imcg.net/media/download_gallery/books/assessment_peatland.pdf

  3. Joosten, H. & Clarke, D. Wise Use of Mires and Peatlands (International Mire Conservation Group and International Peat Society, 2002).

  4. Page, S. & Rieley, J. Tropical peatlands: a review of their natural resource functions, with particular reference to Southeast Asia. Int. Peat J. 8, 95–106 (1998).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Watts, C. D., Naden, P. S., Machell, J. & Banks, J. Long term variation in water colour from Yorkshire catchments. Sci. Total Environ. 278, 57–72 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ritson, J. P. et al. Simulated climate change impact on summer dissolved organic carbon release from peat and surface vegetation: Implications for drinking water treatment. Water Res. 67, 66–76 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Fenner, N. & Freeman, C. Drought-induced carbon loss in peatlands. Nat. Geosci. 4, 895–900 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Clark, J. M. et al. Assessing the vulnerability of blanket peat to climate change using an ensemble of statistical bioclimatic envelope models. Clim. Res 45, 131–U462 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Moore, S., Gauci, V., Evans, C. D. & Page, S. E. Fluvial organic carbon losses from a Bornean blackwater river. Biogeosciences 8, 901–909 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Strack, M. Peatlands and Climate Change (International Peat Society, 2008).

  11. Pastor, J. et al. Global warming and the export of dissolved organic carbon from boreal peatlands. Oikos 100, 380–386 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Schuur, E. A. G. et al. Vulnerability of permafrost carbon to climate change: Implications for the global carbon cycle. Bioscience 58, 701–714 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Li, P., Holden, J., Irvine, B. & Mu, X. Erosion of Northern Hemisphere blanket peatlands under 21st‐century climate change. Geophys. Res. Lett. 44, 3615–3623 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Turetsky, M. R. et al. Global vulnerability of peatlands to fire and carbon loss. Nat. Geosci. 8, 11–14 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Konecny, K. et al. Variable carbon losses from recurrent fires in drained tropical peatlands. Glob. Change Biol. 22, 1469–1480 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Worrall, F., Burt, T. P. & Adamson, J. K. Trends in drought frequency: the fate of DOC export from British peatlands. Climatic Change 76, 339–359 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Joosten, H. The Global Peatland CO Picture: Peatland Status and Drainage Related Emissions in All Countries of the World (Wetlands International, 2009).

  18. Barid, A. J. et al. Carbon Cycling in Northern Peatlands (American Geophysical Union, 2009).

  19. Holden, J. et al. Impact of prescribed burning on blanket peat hydrology. Water Resour. Res. 51, 6472–6484 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Tonks, A. J. et al. Impacts of conversion of tropical peat swamp forest to oil palm plantation on peat organic chemistry, physical properties and carbon stocks. Geoderma 289, 36–45 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Gibson, H. S., Worrall, F., Burt, T. P. & Adamson, J. K. DOC budgets of drained peat catchments: implications for DOC production in peat soils. Hydrol. Process. 23, 1901–1911 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Holden, J., Chapman, P. J. & Labadz, J. C. Artificial drainage of peatlands: hydrological and hydrochemical process and wetland restoration. Prog. Phys. Geogr. 28, 95–123 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Evans, C. D. et al. Contrasting vulnerability of drained tropical and high-latitude peatlands to fluvial loss of stored carbon. Glob. Biogeochem. Cy. 28, 1215–1234 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Moore, S. et al. Deep instability of deforested tropical peatlands revealed by fluvial organic carbon fluxes. Nature 493, 660–663 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Krecek, J. & Haigh, M. Environmental Role of Wetlands in Headwaters (Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht, 2006).

  26. Chow, A. T., Tanji, K. K. & Gao, S. D. Production of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and trihalomethane (THM) precursor from peat soils. Water Res. 37, 4475–4485 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Jenks, G. F. The data model concept in statistical mapping. Int. Yearb. Cartogr. 7, 186–190 (1967).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Bottcher, A. Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA): Water, Soil, Crop, and Environmental Management (Univ. Press of Florida, Gainesville, 1994).

  29. Page, S. E., Rieley, J. O. & Banks, C. J. Global and regional importance of the tropical peatland carbon pool. Glob. Change Biol. 17, 798–818 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Yu, Z. C. Northern peatland carbon stocks and dynamics: a review. Biogeosciences 9, 4071–4085 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  31. Li, P., Holden, J. & Irvine, B. Prediction of blanket peat erosion across Great Britain under environmental change. Climatic Change 134, 177–191 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Evans, M. & Warburton, J. Geomorphology of Upland Peat: Erosion, Form and Landscape Change (John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, 2011).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Nachtergaele, F. & Petri, M. Mapping Land Use Systems at Global and Regional Scales for Land Degradation Assessment Analysis: Technical Report of the LADA FAO/UNEP Project (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2011).

  34. Alexandratos, N. & Bruinsma, J. World Agriculture Towards 2030/2050: the 2012 Revision ESA Working paper (FAO, 2012).

  35. Kechavarzi, C., Dawson, Q. & Leeds-Harrison, P. Physical properties of low-lying agricultural peat soils in England. Geoderma 154, 196–202 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Dawson, Q., Kechavarzi, C., Leeds-Harrison, P. & Burton, R. Subsidence and degradation of agricultural peatlands in the Fenlands of Norfolk, UK. Geoderma 154, 181–187 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  37. Leifeld, J., Müller, M. & Fuhrer, J. Peatland subsidence and carbon loss from drained temperate fens. Soil Use Manag. 27, 170–176 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Couwenberg, J. Emission Factors for Managed Peat Soils: an Analysis of IPCC Default Values (Wetlands International, 2009); http://www.imcg.net/media/download_gallery/climate/couwenberg_2009a.pdf

  39. Holden, J. et al. Water quality and UK agriculture: challenges and opportunities. WIREs Water 4, e1201 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. White, P. J. & Hammond, J. P. The sources of phosphorus in the waters of Great Britain. J. Environ. Qual. 38, 13–26 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  41. Stanley, E. H., Powers, S. M., Lottig, N. R., Buffam, I. & Crawford, J. T. Contemporary changes in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in human‐dominated rivers: is there a role for DOC management? Freshw. Biol. 57, 26–42 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. England's Peatlands – Carbon Storage and Greenhouse Gases NE257 (Natural England, 2010).

  43. Evans, C. D., Monteith, D. T. & Cooper, D. M. Long-term increases in surface water dissolved organic carbon: Observations, possible causes and environmental impacts. Environ. Pollut. 137, 55–71 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  44. Ritson, J. P. et al. The impact of climate change on the treatability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in upland water supplies: A UK perspective. Sci. Total Environ. 473-474, 714–730 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Whitfield, S. et al. Managing peatland ecosystem services: current UK policy and future challenges in a changing world. Scott. Geogr. J. 127, 209–230 (2011).

    Google Scholar 

  46. Multimillion pound investment will ensure a continued secure and reliable high-quality drinking water supply. South Staffs Water (13 April 2017); https://www.south-staffs-water.co.uk/news/multimillion-pound-investment-will-ensure-a-continued-secure-and-reliable-high-quality-drinking-water-supply

  47. £4 million investment at Tankersley waste water treatment works. Yorkshire Water (23 January 2017); https://www.yorkshirewater.com/about-us/newsroom-media/tankersley-treatment--works

  48. Worrall, F., Armstrong, A. & Holden, J. Short-term impact of peat drain-blocking on water colour, dissolved organic carbon concentration, and water table depth. J. Hydrol. 337, 315–325 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Menberu, M. W. et al. Changes in pore water quality after peatland restoration: Assessment of a large-scale, replicated Before-After-Control-Impact study in Finland. Water Resour. Res. 53, 8327–8343 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  50. Martin-Ortega, J., Allott, T. E., Glenk, K. & Schaafsma, M. Valuing water quality improvements from peatland restoration: Evidence and challenges. Ecosyst. Serv. 9, 34–43 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Lehner, B. et al. Global Reservoir and Dam (GRanD) Database Version 1.1 (Department of Georgraphy, McGill Univ., 2011); http://www.gwsp.org/fileadmin/downloads/GRanD_Technical_Documentation_v1_1.pdf

  52. Lehner, B. HydroSHEDS Version 1.2 (World Wildlife Fund US, 2013); http://hydrosheds.org/images/inpages/HydroSHEDS_TechDoc_v1_2.pdf

  53. Lehner, B. & Grill, G. Global river hydrography and network routing: baseline data and new approaches to study the world's large river systems. Hydrol. Process 27, 2171–2186 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. ESRIArcGISDesktop Release 10.4 (Environmental Systems Research Institute, 2016).

  55. Baby, S., Nagyvaradi, L. & Balassa, B. Choropleth mapping and interpolation technique to analyze the demographic influence on kuwait's coastal morphological landscape. Environ. Eng. Manag. J. 15, 245–257 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Chen, J., Yang, S. T., Li, H. W., Zhang, B. & Lv, J. R. Research on Geographical Environment Unit Division Based on the Method of Natural Breaks (Jenks). Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. XL-4/W3, 47–50 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Sadeghfam, S., Hassanzadeh, Y., Nadiri, A. A. & Khatibi, R. Mapping groundwater potential field using catastrophe fuzzy membership functions and Jenks optimization method: a case study of Maragheh-Bonab plain, Iran. Environ. Earth Sci. 75, 545 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Soulsby, C., Gibbins, C., Wade, A., Smart, R. & Helliwell, R. Water quality in the Scottish uplands: a hydrological perspective on catchment hydrochemistry. Sci. Total Environ. 294, 73–94 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  59. Langan, S. & Soulsby, C. The environmental context for water quality variation in Scotland. Sci. Total Environ. 265, 7–14 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was funded in part by a PhD scholarship awarded to J.X., funded jointly by the China Scholarship Council (201506420041) and the School of Geography, University of Leeds. This study was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41625001, 41571022). The authors thank S. Palmer and B. Irvine for useful discussions and comments on an earlier draft.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. water@leeds, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Jiren Xu, Paul J. Morris, Junguo Liu & Joseph Holden

  2. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China

    Junguo Liu

Authors
  1. Jiren Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul J. Morris
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Junguo Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Joseph Holden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

J.X., P.J.M. and J.H. designed this study. J.X. wrote the majority of the manuscript, and performed the majority of analyses. P.J.M., J.H. and J.L. supervised and co-wrote the manuscript, and provided conceptual direction. All authors contributed to interpretation and analysis of the data.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiren Xu.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Note, Supplementary Figures 1–6, Supplementary Tables 2–8, Supplementary References 1–12

Supplementary Table 1

Global Peat Reservoir Index (PRI) catchments

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Xu, J., Morris, P.J., Liu, J. et al. Hotspots of peatland-derived potable water use identified by global analysis. Nat Sustain 1, 246–253 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0064-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-018-0064-6

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Anthropocene

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Anthropocene newsletter — what matters in anthropocene research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Anthropocene