Abstract
Peatlands are remarkable for their specific biodiversity, crucial role in carbon cycling and climate change. Their deposits preserve organism remains that can be used to reconstruct long-term ecosystem and environmental changes as well as human impact in the prehistorical and historical past. This study presents a new multi-proxy reconstruction of the peatland and vegetation development investigating climate dynamics and human impact at the border between mixed and boreal forests in the Valdai Uplands (the East European Plain, Russia) during most of the Holocene. We performed plant macrofossil, pollen, testate amoeba, Cladocera, diatom, peat humification, loss on ignition, carbon and nitrogen content, δ13C and δ15N analyses supported by radiocarbon dating of the peat deposits from the Krivetskiy Mokh mire. The results of the study indicate that the wetland ecosystem underwent a classic hydroserial succession from a lake (8300 BC–900 BC) terrestrialized through a fen (900 BC–630 AD) to an ombrotrophic bog (630 AD–until present) and responded to climate changes documented over the Holocene. Each stage was associated with clear changes in local diversity of organisms responding mostly to autogenic successional changes during the lake stage and to allogenic factors at the fen-bog stage. The latter can be related to increased human impact and greater sensitivity of peatland ecosystems to external, especially climatic, drivers as compared to lakes.
Highlights
Peatlands are wetland ecosystems characterized by an accumulation of organic matter as peat due to unbalanced net primary production and decomposition [1]
The results obtained in this study provide a long-term reconstruction of mire development, regional vegetation, climate dynamics and human impact for the border between mixed and boreal forest in the East European Plain during most of the Holocene
The highly resistant remains of E. vaginatum promote peat accumulation and consequent ombrotrophication [105]. It took ca. 500 years from the first appearance of Sphagnum (S. angustifolium) in the mire at 100 AD until the total prevalence of Sphagnum at 640 AD
Summary
Peatlands are wetland ecosystems characterized by an accumulation of organic matter as peat due to unbalanced net primary production and decomposition [1]. The subsequent succession from fen to bog is the result of local peat accumulation that gradually lifts the surface of the peatland above the influence of the groundwater [4]. While hydroserial succession is a very widespread and common phenomenon, its main driving forces and mechanisms remain debated due to numerous regional patterns related to unique combinations of allogenic (e.g., climate, edaphic conditions and fire) and autogenic (e.g., peat accumulation rate and acidification) factors [4,5,7]. The remaining period (5700–3000 BC) is characterized by background characterized by background macro charcoal accumulation rate >1 piece cm−2 yr−1 and had four local macro charcoal accumulation rate >1 piece cm−2 yr−1 and had four local forest fire episodes. The frequency of local fire episodes was relatively low (approximately the frequency of local fire episodes was relatively low (approximately one episode per less than 900 yr)
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