Palaeoecological data of KTG core, Katingan, Central Kalimantan, Borneo, Indonesia

Southeast Asian peatlands, along with their various important ecosystem services, are mainly distributed in the coastal areas of Sumatra and Borneo. These ecosystems are threatened by coastal development, global warming and sea level rise (SLR). Despite receiving growing attention for their biodiversity and as massive carbon stores, there is still a lack of knowledge on how they initiated and evolved over time, and how they responded to past environmental change, i.e., precipitation, sea level and early anthropogenic activities. To improve our understanding thereof, we conducted multi-proxy palaeoecological studies in the Kampar Peninsula and Katingan peatlands in the coastal area of Riau and Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The results indicate that the initiation timing and environment of both peatlands are very distinct, suggesting that peat could form under various vegetation as soon as there is sufficient moisture to limit organic matter decomposition. The past dynamics of both peatl..., The investigation including pollen and spore, loss-on-ignition, total organic carbon, stable carbon isotope and micro- and macrocharcoal was carried out on a peat core collected from coastal area in southern Borneo.
Pollen, spore and charcoal extraction and identification, as well as Loss-On-Igntition analysis were conducted at the Dept. Palynology and Climate Dynamics, University of Goettingen.
Organic carbon content and isotopes were determined in Euro EA3000 elemental analyzer and Thermo Finnigan Delta Plus mass spectrometer, respectively, at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen., Fossil pollen and spore are in counts.