Topography alters the optimum timing of peatland initiation across Northeast China during the Holocene

Peatlands are a key carbon sink and play an important role in the global carbon cycle and climate change. Understanding the process of peatland initiation is essential to understand the carbon sink functions of peatlands. While the climate is widely recognized as the main driver that controls the peatland initiation, the importance of topography, a limiting factor that influencing local climate conditions, is still unclear. Here, we used data from 231 peatlands in Northeast China to evaluate the role of topography on peatland initiation. The results show that most peatlands that initiated during the Late Holocene was distributed at elevations