Nitrogen pollution risks weakening peatland climate benefits

Peatlands are among Earth’s most important natural climate assets, covering only ~3% of global land area yet storing nearly one third of global soil carbon. Yet their climate benefits may be weakened by nitrous oxide (N2O), a potent greenhouse gas that can increase under human disturbance and nitrogen pollution. Here we synthesized 1243 effect sizes from 97 field studies, including 369 observations of N2O emissions, to quantify how human disturbance alters peatland nitrogen cycling and to project N2O responses under nitrogen addition scenarios. Here we uploaded the database and code used in this research.