Long-term changes in Carbon accumulation in mountain peatbogs in the South-West of Norway

Abstract

There is relevant research on temporal carbon accumulation changes, mostly in arctic permafrost peatlands in Norway, but little is known about the differences and comparisons with more oceanic and lower latitude peatlands in the region, where rainfall is one of the main climatic drivers. Climate projections in Norway for 2031-2060 and 2071-2100 show a rise in mean temperature and an increase of annual rainfall with more intense seasonal events in western, eastern, and northern parts. Under this rationale, this study hypothesizes that temporal variability of temperature and precipitation during the Holocene led to weaker and stronger evapotranspiration and moisture signals affecting local and regional vegetation in peatland ecosystems, water-table changes, and carbon accumulation capacity. This study will contribute to the generation of evidence of the roles and interactions of hydrology, temperature, vegetation, and land use changes on peatbogs carbon accumulation capacity during the Holocene. It will help to disentangle the responses of the carbon budget at different time scales. Methods involve the use of a set of proxies such as pollen, testate amoeba, LOI and bulk density to reconstruct the peat composition rate, organic matter, water table, and local (and regional) vegetation. A generation of an age-depth model and further multivariate analysis will allow to investigate the relationship between the proxies and carbon accumulation rate over the Holocene to further understand the temperature/precipitation correlation and the effects of a changing climate on the carbon budget.