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Abstract Most peat domes in Southeast Asia are crisscrossed by networks of drainage canals. These canals are a potentially important source of methane to the atmosphere because the groundwater that discharges into them carries high concentrations of dissolved methane that is produced within peat. In this study, we present an isotope‐enabled numerical model that simulates transport, degassing, and oxidation of methane and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) along a drainage canal. We then estimate methane fluxes through a 5‐km canal that crosses a disturbed, forested, but undeveloped, peat dome in Brunei Darussalam by applying this model to field data: concentrations and stable carbon isotopic ratios of both methane and dissolved inorganic carbon from both peat porewater and canal water. We estimate that approximately 70% of the methane entering the canal is oxidized within the canal, 26% is degassed to the atmosphere, and 4% is transported toward the ocean, under low to moderate flow conditions. The flux of methane to the atmosphere is lowest at the maximum elevation of the canal, where flow is stagnant and methane concentrations are highest. Downstream, as flow velocity increases, methane emissions plateau even as methane concentrations decrease. The resulting methane emissions from the canal are large compared to emissions from the peat surface and vegetation on a per‐area basis. However, since the canal covers only a small portion of the catchment area, the canal may be a substantial but not dominant source of methane from the peatland. 

Abstract Species radiations, despite immense phenotypic variation, can be difficult to resolve phylogenetically when genetic change poorly matches the rapidity of diversification. Genomic potential furnished by palaeopolyploidy, and relative roles for adaptation, random drift and hybridisation in the apportionment of genetic variation, remain poorly understood factors. Here, we study these aspects in a model radiation,Syzygium, the most species-rich tree genus worldwide. Genomes of 182 distinct species and 58 unidentified taxa are compared against a chromosome-level reference genome of the sea apple,Syzygium grande. We show that whileSyzygiumshares an ancient genome doubling event with other Myrtales, little evidence exists for recent polyploidy events. Phylogenomics confirms thatSyzygiumoriginated in Australia-New Guinea and diversified in multiple migrations, eastward to the Pacific and westward to India and Africa, in bursts of speciation visible as poorly resolved branches on phylogenies. Furthermore, some sublineages demonstrate genomic clines that recapitulate cladogenetic events, suggesting that stepwise geographic speciation, a neutral process, has been important inSyzygiumdiversification. 

Abstract Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations^1–6in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories⁷, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.