Recent rates of carbon and nitrogen accumulation in peatlands of Isla Grande de Chiloé-Chile

Carolina A León,Gisela Oliván

doi:10.1186/s40693-014-0026-y

Abstract

BackgroundPeatlands play a key role in the global carbon cycle; these contain one third of the world's soil organic carbon, equivalent to more than half the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, these ecosystems have been scarcely studied in southern South America. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the recent accumulation rates of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) in two kinds of oligotrofic peatlands in Isla Grande de Chiloé (Chile).ResultsUsing peat C and N content, dry bulk density, and Pb-210 dating, we determined the rates of N and C accumulation in profiles from five peatlands in the northern Chilean Patagonia. The recent rate of C accumulation (RERCA) ranges from 8.5 to 87.06 g C m−2 year−1, and the recent rate of N accumulation (RERNA) ranges from 0.15 to 2.37 g N m−2 year−1. The difference in RERCA and RERNA between glacial peatlands and anthropogenic peatlands was significant. One of the remarkable results is that accumulation of N and C are directly related.ConclusionsThis study contributes for a better understanding of the Patagonian peatlands of Chile. In addition, this research contributes by setting a basis for conducting further studies and for assessing the impacts of climate change on peatlands.

Highlights

Peatlands play a key role in the global carbon cycle; these contain one third of the world's soil organic carbon, equivalent to more than half the amount of carbon in the atmosphere
Considering the above background, the aim of this paper is to describe some aspects of C and N accumulation through a comparative analysis of recent rate of C accumulation (RERCA) and the recent rate of nitrogen accumulation (RERNA) in anthropogenic and glaciogenic peatlands of Isla Grande de Chiloé (Chile) and to establish the relationship between these rates
We observed the opposite trend in CH; the density decreases to deeper layers

Summary

Introduction

Peatlands play a key role in the global carbon cycle; these contain one third of the world's soil organic carbon, equivalent to more than half the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Peatlands have in the past 15,000 years withdrawn enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and stored it in their peat deposits (Yu et al 2003; Joosten and Couwenberg 2008) They play a key role in the global carbon cycle and are influenced by global climate change. These habitats account for 3% to 6% of the Earth's land surface and contain around 600 gigatonnes of C (Charman 2002; Charman et al 2013; Clymo et al 1998).

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