Severe wildfire legacies suppress methane emissions after peatland rewetting
- 1Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Blichers Allé 20, 8830, Tjele, Denmark
- 2Corresponding author.
Abstract
Drained peatlands are major sources of greenhouse gases, but rewetting them to restore carbon storage often triggers substantial methane emissions and faces resistance from agricultural land users. Wildfires are becoming more frequent on these drained landscapes and can sharply reduce agricultural productivity. It remains unclear whether severely wildfire-affected peatlands can serve as effective targets for rewetting. Here we show that rewetting severely wildfire-affected peat soils suppresses methane emissions by more than 90% compared with rewetting non-fire-affected soils. Severe wildfire legacies increase soil carbon stability, raise pH and electrical conductivity, reduce methanogenic functional gene abundance, and can override typical hydrological controls, turning what is usually a methane surge into a strong net climate benefit. These changes position recent severe wildfire footprints as overlooked low-emission, high-priority targets for peatland rewetting that also reduce land-use conflict. Global scaling indicates that prioritizing rewetting on severely wildfire-affected degraded peatlands could avoid up to 0.8 million tonnes of CO 2 -equivalent methane emissions per year, with more than 70% of the potential in Asia. The findings reveal a practical pathway to accelerate restoration by harnessing wildfire legacies rather than fighting them.
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BibTeX
@article{cui2026severe,
title = {{Severe wildfire legacies suppress methane emissions after peatland rewetting}},
author = {Shihao Cui and Haonan Guo and Lorenzo Pugliese and Shubiao Wu},
journal = {Environmental Science and Ecotechnology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.ese.2026.100735},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100735},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Severe wildfire legacies suppress methane emissions after peatland rewetting
AU - Shihao Cui
AU - Haonan Guo
AU - Lorenzo Pugliese
AU - Shubiao Wu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Environmental Science and Ecotechnology
DO - 10.1016/j.ese.2026.100735
UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100735
AB - Drained peatlands are major sources of greenhouse gases, but rewetting them to restore carbon storage often triggers substantial methane emissions and faces resistance from agricultural land users. Wildfires are becoming more frequent on these drained landscapes and can sharply reduce agricultural productivity. It remains unclear whether severely wildfire-affected peatlands can serve as effective targets for rewetting. Here we show that rewetting severely wildfire-affected peat soils suppresses methane emissions by more than 90% compared with rewetting non-fire-affected soils. Severe wildfire legacies increase soil carbon stability, raise pH and electrical conductivity, reduce methanogenic functional gene abundance, and can override typical hydrological controls, turning what is usually a methane surge into a strong net climate benefit. These changes position recent severe wildfire footprints as overlooked low-emission, high-priority targets for peatland rewetting that also reduce land-use conflict. Global scaling indicates that prioritizing rewetting on severely wildfire-affected degraded peatlands could avoid up to 0.8 million tonnes of CO 2 -equivalent methane emissions per year, with more than 70% of the potential in Asia. The findings reveal a practical pathway to accelerate restoration by harnessing wildfire legacies rather than fighting them.
SN - 2666-4984
ER -