Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-432
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-432
11 Aug 2025
 | 11 Aug 2025
Status: this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.

Peat-DBase v.1: A Compiled Database of Global Peat Depth Measurements

Jade Skye, Joe R. Melton, Colin Goldblatt, Louis Saumier, Angela Gallego-Sala, Michelle Garneau, R. Scott Winton, Erick B. Bahati, Juan C. Benavides, Lee Fedorchuk, Gérard Imani, Carol Kagaba, Frank Kansiime, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Michel Mbasi, Daria Wochal, Sambor Czerwiński, Jacek Landowski, Joanna Landowska, Vincent Maire, Minna M. Väliranta, Matthew Warren, Lydia E. S. Cole, Marissa A. Davies, Erik A. Lilleskov, Jingjing Sun, and Yuwan Wang

Abstract. Peatlands are globally important carbon stores that face increasing threats from human activities and climate change impacts. Comprehensive peatland data are essential for understanding ecosystem responses to these stressors and mapping their past and current characteristics. Current peatland datasets remain limited due to poor representation in global soil mapping initiatives and the absence of a recognized, coordinated central repository for peat depth data. Existing compilations often contain errors, duplicates, and outdated observations, requiring researchers to repeatedly gather and harmonize data on a study-by-study basis. To address these challenges, we present Peat-DBase version 1.0—a harmonized, quality-controlled global compilation of basal peat depth measurements.

Version 1.0 of Peat-DBase comprises 204,902 peat depth measurements from 29 sources spanning 54.933° S to 82.217° N, with a significant proportion of measurements in Atlantic Canada and Scotland due to the inclusion of two particularly large datasets focused on those regions. We supplement the peat study measurements with 94,615 non-peat soil measurements to ensure comprehensive coverage consistent with the relatively low spatial coverage of peatlands globally. Despite the uneven distribution of peat depth measurements, Peat-DBase contains reasonable coverage of the major global peatland complexes in temperate and boreal North America and Europe, portions of Russia, the Amazon and Congo basins, and the Malay Archipelago, though gaps remain in the lower Amazon Basin, Eastern Indonesia, and Eastern Russia. From the current data, peat depths average 144 cm, although this is influenced by a predominance of measurements in the North Atlantic regions. Peat-DBase's deepest measurement is 3,527 cm.

While sampling biases and measurement uncertainties exist, Peat-DBase provides an essential foundation for global peatland research. Peat-DBase is under active development and future versions will incorporate additional datasets, information on current peatland status, and improved positional uncertainty quantification. Peat-DBase eliminates the need for overlapping data compilation efforts while identifying critical observational gaps for future research. Peat-DBase is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15530645.

Publisher's note: Copernicus Publications remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims made in the text, published maps, institutional affiliations, or any other geographical representation in this paper. While Copernicus Publications makes every effort to include appropriate place names, the final responsibility lies with the authors. Views expressed in the text are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
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Jade Skye, Joe R. Melton, Colin Goldblatt, Louis Saumier, Angela Gallego-Sala, Michelle Garneau, R. Scott Winton, Erick B. Bahati, Juan C. Benavides, Lee Fedorchuk, Gérard Imani, Carol Kagaba, Frank Kansiime, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Michel Mbasi, Daria Wochal, Sambor Czerwiński, Jacek Landowski, Joanna Landowska, Vincent Maire, Minna M. Väliranta, Matthew Warren, Lydia E. S. Cole, Marissa A. Davies, Erik A. Lilleskov, Jingjing Sun, and Yuwan Wang

Status: open (until 17 Sep 2025)

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Jade Skye, Joe R. Melton, Colin Goldblatt, Louis Saumier, Angela Gallego-Sala, Michelle Garneau, R. Scott Winton, Erick B. Bahati, Juan C. Benavides, Lee Fedorchuk, Gérard Imani, Carol Kagaba, Frank Kansiime, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Michel Mbasi, Daria Wochal, Sambor Czerwiński, Jacek Landowski, Joanna Landowska, Vincent Maire, Minna M. Väliranta, Matthew Warren, Lydia E. S. Cole, Marissa A. Davies, Erik A. Lilleskov, Jingjing Sun, and Yuwan Wang

Data sets

Peat-DBase: A Compiled Database of Global Peat Depth Measurements J. Skye et al. https://zenodo.org/records/15530645

Jade Skye, Joe R. Melton, Colin Goldblatt, Louis Saumier, Angela Gallego-Sala, Michelle Garneau, R. Scott Winton, Erick B. Bahati, Juan C. Benavides, Lee Fedorchuk, Gérard Imani, Carol Kagaba, Frank Kansiime, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Michel Mbasi, Daria Wochal, Sambor Czerwiński, Jacek Landowski, Joanna Landowska, Vincent Maire, Minna M. Väliranta, Matthew Warren, Lydia E. S. Cole, Marissa A. Davies, Erik A. Lilleskov, Jingjing Sun, and Yuwan Wang
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Short summary
Peatlands are large stores of carbon but are vulnerable to human activities and climate change.  Comprehensive peatland data are vital to understand these ecosystems, but existing datasets are fragmented and contain errors. To address this, we created Peat-DBase — a standardized global database of peat depth measurements with > 200,000 measurements worldwide, showing average depths of 144 cm. Peat-DBase avoids overlapping data compilation efforts while identifying critical observational gaps.
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