Paleoenvironment of Kuan Kreng peat swamp, Southern Thailand

Peatlands have played an important role in the global carbon cycle. Tropical peatlands are one of the largest reserves of terrestrial organic carbon. Present-day tropical peat swamp forests are, however, under the threat of anthropogenic disturbance or have already been widely degraded. In Southeast Asia, very large areas of peatland have been deforested, drained, converted to extensive and intensive agricultural land uses and exposed to regular wildfires. Khuan Kreng peat swamp is the second largest protected wetland in Thailand. Recent studies in Khuan Kreng peat swamp has focused on present day drought and forest fires, but there is still lack of paleoenvironmental data. In this study, sediment and peat sequences were collected from Forest Fire Control Station area in Khuan Kreng peat swamp, and geochemical data (loss on ignition, grain size analysis and carbonate content) were analyzed. The age of early Holocene were determined based on plant macrofossils using Radiocarbon Dating (¹⁴C). The preliminary results indicate that this area was Tidal flats. The study of sediment/peat sequences using geochemical data can improve our understanding how past environmental have affected Khuan Kreng peat swamp ecosystems.