Anderson, L. A. & Sarmiento, J. L. Redfield ratios of remineralization determined by nutrient data analysis. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 8, 65–80 (1994).
Gloor, M. et al. The carbon balance of South America: a review of the status, decadal trends and main determinants. Biogeosciences 9, 5407–5430 (2012).
Luyssaert, S. et al. Old-growth forests as global carbon sinks. Nature 455, 213–215 (2008).
Berner, R. A. Biogeochemical cycles of carbon and sulfur and their effect on atmospheric oxygen over phanerozoic time. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 75, 97–122 (1989).
Hilton, R. G., Gaillardet, J., Calmels, D. & Birck, J.-L. Geological respiration of a mountain belt revealed by the trace element rhenium. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 403, 27–36 (2014).
Berner, R. A. Burial of organic carbon and pyrite sulfur in the modern ocean: its geochemical and environmental significance. Am. J. Sci. 282, 461–473 (1982).
Bianchi, T. S. et al. Centers of organic carbon burial and oxidation at the land-ocean interface. Org. Geochem. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2017.09.008 (2018).
Berner, R. A. Phanerozoic atmospheric oxygen: new results using the GEOCARBSULF model. Am. J. Sci. 309, 603–606 (2009).
Yu, Z., Loisel, J., Brosseau, D. P., Beilman, D. W. & Hunt, S. J. Global peatland dynamics since the Last Glacial Maximum. Geophys. Res. Lett. 37, 1021–1027 (2010).
Treat, C. C. et al. Widespread global peatland establishment and persistence over the last 130,000 y. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 116, 4822–4827 (2019).
Page, S. et al. Anthropogenic impacts on lowland tropical peatland biogeochemistry. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 3, 426–443 (2022).
Ratcliffe, J. L., Peng, H., Nijp, J. J. & Nilsson, M. B. Lateral expansion of northern peatlands calls into question a 1,055 GtC estimate of carbon storage. Nat. Geosci. 14, 468–469 (2021).
Yu, Z. et al. No support for carbon storage of >1,000 GtC in northern peatlands. Nat. Geosci. 14, 465–467 (2021).
Hansell, D. A. Recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon fractions.Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci. 5, 421–445 (2013).
Nelsen, M. P., DiMichele, W. A., Peters, S. E. & Boyce, C. K. Delayed fungal evolution did not cause the Paleozoic peak in coal production. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 2442–2447 (2016).
Hayes, J. M., Strauss, H. & Kaufman, A. J. The abundance of 13C in marine organic matter and isotopic fractionation in the global biogeochemical cycle of carbon during the past 800 Ma. Chem. Geol. 161, 103–125 (1999).
Clay, G. D. & Worrall, F. Oxidative ratio (OR) of Southern African soils and vegetation: updating the global OR estimate. CATENA 126, 126–133 (2015).
Worrall, F., Clay, G. D., Masiello, C. A. & Mynheer, G. Estimating the oxidative ratio of the global terrestrial biosphere carbon–the global terrestrial carbon sink has been underestimated. Soil Use and Manag. 31, 77–88 (2015).
Galvez, M. E. & Jaccard, S. L. Redox capacity of rocks and sediments by high temperature chalcometric titration. Chem. Geol. 564, 120016 (2021).
Perks, H. M. & Keeling, R. F. A 400 kyr record of combustion oxygen demand in the western equatorial Pacific: evidence for a precessionally forced climate response. Paleoceanogr. Paleoclimatol. 13, 63–69 (1998).
White, L. J. et al. Congo Basin rainforest—invest US $150 million in science. Nature 598, 411–414 (2021).
Dargie, G. C. et al. Age, extent and carbon storage of the central Congo Basin peatland complex. Nature 542, 86–90 (2017).
Crezee, B. et al. Mapping peat thickness and carbon stocks of the central Congo Basin using field data. Nat. Geosci. 15, 639–644 (2022).
Garcin, Y. et al. Hydroclimatic vulnerability of peat carbon in the central Congo Basin. Nature 612, 277–282 (2022).
Hawthorne, D. et al. Two contrasting swamp forest succession pathways in central Congo Basin peatlands. Quat. Sci. Rev. 369, 109637 (2025).
Menges, J. et al. Environmental and climatic evolution of a river-proximal peatland in the Cuvette Centrale, Congo Basin. Quat. Sci. Rev. 363, 109445 (2025).
Hawthorne, D. et al. Genesis and development of an interfluvial peatland in the central Congo Basin since the Late Pleistocene. Quat. Sci. Rev. 305, 107992 (2023).
Schefuß, E., Schouten, S. & Schneider, R. R. Climatic controls on central African hydrology during the past 20,000 years. Nature 437, 1003–1006 (2005).
Keeling, R. F., Powell, F. L., Shaffer, G., Robbins, P. A. & Simonson, T. S. Impacts of changes in atmospheric O2 on human physiology. Is there a basis for concern?. Front. Physiol. 12, 2021 (2021).
Fischer, W., Hemp, J. & Johnson, J. E. Evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 44, 647–683 (2016).
Rothman, D. H. Characteristic disruptions of an excitable carbon cycle. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 14813 (2019).
Weijers, J. W. H., Schouten, S., Schefuß, E., Schneider, R. R. & Sinninghe Damsté, J. S. Disentangling marine, soil and plant organic carbon contributions to continental margin sediments: a multi-proxy approach in a 20,000 year sediment record from the Congo deep-sea fan. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 73, 119–132 (2009).
Rothman, D. H. Thresholds of catastrophe in the Earth system. Sci. Adv. 3 (2017).
Dargie, G. et al. Timing of peat initiation across the central Congo Basin. Environ. Res. Lett. 20, 084080 (2025).
Smith, G. A review of the Tertiary-Cretaceous tectonic history of the Gippsland Basin and its control on coal measure sedimentation. Aust. Coal Geol. 4, 1–38 (1982).
Moss, S. J. & Wilson, M. E. Biogeographic implications of the Tertiary palaeogeographic evolution of Sulawesi and Borneo. Biogeogr. Geol. Evol. Southeast Asia 133, 163 (1998).
Roberts, L. N. R. & Kirschbaum, M. A. Paleogeography of the Late Cretaceous of the Western Interior of Middle North America: Coal Distribution and Sediment Accumulation (US GPO, 1995).
Greb, S. F., DiMichele, W. A. & Gastaldo, R. A. Evolution and importance of wetlands in earth history. Geol. Soc. Am. Special Pap. 399, 1–40 (2006).
Hilton, R. G. & West, A. J. Mountains, erosion and the carbon cycle. Nat. Rev. Earth Environ. 1, 284–299 (2020).
Hugelius, G. et al. Large stocks of peatland carbon and nitrogen are vulnerable to permafrost thaw. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 117, 20438–20446 (2020).
Loisel, J. et al. Insights and issues with estimating northern peatland carbon stocks and fluxes since the Last Glacial Maximum. Earth-Sci. Rev. 165, 59–80 (2017).
Gandois, L. et al. Contribution of peatland permafrost to dissolved organic matter along a thaw gradient in North Siberia. Environ. Sci. Technol. 53, 14165–14174 (2019).
Jiang, Y. et al. Widespread increase of boreal summer dry season length over the Congo rainforest. Nat. Clim. Change 9, 617–622 (2019).
Antoine, P.-O. et al. A 60-million-year Cenozoic history of western Amazonian ecosystems in Contamana, eastern Peru. Gondwana Res. 31, 30–59 (2016).
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).
Dommain, R., Couwenberg, J., Glaser, P. H., Joosten, H. & Suryadiputra, I. N. N. Carbon storage and release in Indonesian peatlands since the last deglaciation. Quat. Sci. Rev. 97, 1–32 (2014).
Draper, F. C. et al. The distribution and amount of carbon in the largest peatland complex in Amazonia. Environ. Res. Lett. 9, 124017 (2014).
Lähteenoja, O., Ruokolainen, K., Schulman, L. & Oinonen, M. Amazonian peatlands: an ignored C sink and potential source. Glob. Change Biol. 15, 2311–2320 (2009).
Kelly, T. J., Lawson, I. T., Roucoux, K. H., Baker, T. R. & Coronado, E. N. H. Patterns and drivers of development in a west Amazonian peatland during the late Holocene. Quat. Sci. Rev. 230, 106168 (2020).
Loisel, J. et al. A database and synthesis of northern peatland soil properties and Holocene carbon and nitrogen accumulation. Holocene 24, 1028–1042 (2014).
Weijers, J. W., Schefuß, E., Schouten, S. & Damsté, J. S. S. Coupled thermal and hydrological evolution of tropical Africa over the last deglaciation. Science 315, 1701–1704 (2007).
Galvez, M. Hydroclimate controls a Holocene carbon–oxygen valve in Congo Basin peatlands. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20081073 (2026).
Credit: Source link