Effect of flooding on peatland in U Minh Thuong National Park, Vietnam

U Minh Thuong National Park is one of the two significant areas of peatland swamp forest remaining in Vietnam, and is recognized as one of the three highest priority sites for wetland conservation in Mekong Delta. A large area of Melaleuca Forest in the park was destroyed and degraded by a devastating fire in 2002. Besides this, an artificial flooding technique for controlling fire applied all over the park for several years changed the natural development of Melaleuca Forest. As the natural condition of the forest has changed, water management (artificial flooding) needs to be implemented to save this situation. Flooding regime has changed the structure and composition of the peatland, making it to be loose and reduced in structure. The peatland area in the park has water level of 30 cm underground and occupies 15% of the total park area. It emits very large amount of CO2 emissions. The main objective of this work is to study how to protect the forest biodiversity from fire by controlling its water level optimally after rainy season and to study the chemical and physical characteristics of the peatland soil of the forest that affect its water level