Quantifying and conserving West Papuan wetland forests

新几内亚岛是地球上生物多样性最丰富的岛屿。这种巨大的多样性分布在一系列生态系统类型中，包括低海拔的森林湿地。除了生物多样性之外，这些生态系统还可能以深层泥炭的形式储存大量的碳。尽管这些生态系统中的碳和生物多样性模式以及保护风险的驱动因素很重要，但它们仍然没有量化。此外，与东南亚的大多数邻近地区相比，这些生态系统中的大部分基本上保持完好，尽管近年来发展迅速。新奇和及时性2019年，10万平方公里的印度尼西亚西巴布亚省被宣布为保护省，这意味着所有未来的发展必须是可持续的。这一宣言为保护地球上一些最具生物价值和碳含量最高的森林提供了一个重要机会。这种保护的一个令人兴奋的途径来自生态服务计划的付款，大型跨国公司向热带国家/土地所有者/当地社区付款，以换取保护森林。该项目将由Wildlifeworks的合作伙伴共同监督，Wildlifeworks是一家以社区为中心的市场保护公司，利用碳信用市场保护全球热带森林。目标：这个博士项目将利用新的实地数据收集和新的遥感方法的令人兴奋的组合：1。量化西巴布亚湿地/泥炭地生态系统的碳储量。确定巴布亚湿地生态系统中树木β多样性的生物物理驱动因素。预测在未来几十年内，在低地湿地镶嵌图中，土地利用变化将发生在何处，以及保护干预措施可以指向何处。新几内亚是地球上第二大和植物种类最多的岛屿，特有物种的数量非常多（Cámara-Leret等人，2020年）。这种多样性分布在一系列生态系统类型中，包括仅次于亚马逊和中非的第三大热带雨林。新几内亚本身分为西部的印度尼西亚（Tanah巴布亚）和东部的巴布亚新几内亚。塔纳巴布亚是一个由大片低地森林覆盖的洪泛平原和湿地组成的马赛克，这些湿地可能以泥炭的形式储存大量的碳。尽管近年来湿地制图有所改进（例如Anda等人，这些湿地森林中生物多样性和碳储量的分布和驱动因素仍然知之甚少。这些生态系统的保护风险驱动因素也是如此，与东南亚邻近地区不同，这些生态系统基本上保持完整，但保护程度低于高地森林（Parsch等人，2022年）。这提供了一个机会，以确定最重要和最受威胁的地区，以更好地优先考虑和有针对性的保护行动。这是及时的，因为该地区的森林砍伐，主要是为了种植油棕，正在扩大（奥斯汀等人，2017年），同时有势头保护至少70%的塔纳巴布亚，并根据《马诺夸里宣言》促进可持续发展（Cámara-Leret等人，2019年）。还有机会通过Sago palm（Metroxylon sagu）农林业或碳信用等工具的付款来探索森林保护的途径，但除非更好地了解这些森林，否则无法对这些途径进行适当估值。这个博士项目将利用新的实地数据收集和新颖的遥感方法来解决这些差距。Anda，M.，Ritung，S.，Suryani，E.，Sukarman，Hikmat，M.，Yatno，E.，Mulyani，A.，苏班迪奥诺河E、Suratman，& Husnain.（2021年）。印度尼西亚热带泥炭地重访：半详细绘图、范围和深度分布评估。Geoderma，402，115235。https：//doi.org/10.1016/J.GEODERMA.2021.115235Austin，K. G.，莫斯尼

Background The island of New Guinea is the most biodiverse island on Earth. This vast diversity is distributed across a range of ecosystem types, including a mosaic of forested wetlands at low elevations. In addition to their biodiversity, these ecosystems potentially harbour substantial carbon stocks in the form of deep peat. Despite their importance, the drivers of carbon and biodiversity patterns and conservation risks in these ecosystems remain unquantified. Furthermore, in contrast to most neighbouring regions of Southeast Asia, much of these ecosystems remain largely intact, although development has been increasing rapidly over recent years. Novelty and timeliness In 2019, the 100,000 km2 Indonesian province of West Papua was declared as a conservation province, meaning that all future development must be sustainable. This declaration presents an important opportunity to protect some of Earths most biologically valuable and carbon rich forests. One exciting pathway for this conservation comes from payments for ecological services schemes, whereby large multinational companies provide payment to tropical nations/landowners/local communities in exchange for safeguarding forests. This project will be co-supervised by partners at Wildlifeworks, a community-focused market-based conservation company that uses carbon credits market to conserve tropical forests globally. Objectives: This PhD project will leverage an exciting combination of new field data collections and novel remote sensing approaches to:1. Quantify the carbon stocks of wetland/peatland ecosystems across Western Papua.2. Identify the biophysical drivers of tree beta-diversity in Papuan wetland ecosystems.3. Predict where land-use change will occur over coming decades within the lowland wetland mosaic and where conservation interventions could be directed. New Guinea is the second largest and most floristically diverse island on Earth with exceptional levels of endemic species (Cámara-Leret et al., 2020). This diversity is distributed across a range of ecosystem types including the third largest area of tropical rainforest after Amazonia and central Africa. New Guinea itself is split between Indonesia in the west (Tanah Papua) and Papua New Guinea in the east. Tanah Papua is home to a vast mosaic of lowland forested floodplains and wetlands which potentially harbour substantial carbon stocks in the form of peat. Despite improved wetland mapping in recent years (e.g. Anda et al., 2021) the distribution and drivers of biodiversity and carbon stocks in these wetland forests remain poorly understood. The same is true for the drivers of conservation risks in these ecosystems which remain largely intact, unlike neighbouring regions in Southeast Asia, but are less protected than upland forests (Parsch et al., 2022). This presents an opportunity to identify the most important and threatened areas to better prioritise and target conservation actions. This is timely because deforestation, primarily for oil palm cultivation, is expanding in the region (Austin et al., 2017) at the same time that there is momentum to protect at least 70% of Tanah Papua and promote sustainable development under the Manokwari Declaration (Cámara-Leret et al., 2019). There is also scope to explore pathways to forest conservation through Sago palm (Metroxylon sagu) agroforestry or payments from instruments like carbon credits, but these cannot be properly valued unless these forests are better understood. This PhD project will leverage a combination of new field data collections and novel remote sensing approaches to address these gaps. ReferencesAnda, M., Ritung, S., Suryani, E., Sukarman, Hikmat, M., Yatno, E., Mulyani, A., Subandiono, R. E., Suratman, & Husnain. (2021). Revisiting tropical peatlands in Indonesia: Semi-detailed mapping, extent and depth distribution assessment. Geoderma, 402, 115235. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.GEODERMA.2021.115235Austin, K. G., Mosnie