Peatland Carbon Accumulation Research Articles

Assessing carbon accumulation through peat vertical displacement: The influence of climate and land use across diverse peatland characteristics.

With their net carbon accumulation determined by the balance between gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) and carbon losses (from processes such as oxidation and decomposition), peatlands can function as either carbon sinks or carbon sources. Healthy, pristine peatlands are vital carbon sinks, while degraded peatlands can release significant amounts of carbon (C) into the atmosphere. This study investigates the use of peat vertical displacement (VD), detectable via remote sensing, as a proxy for net carbon accumulation in northern boreal and temperate peatlands. Various environmental factors, including peat body and vegetation types, climate conditions, and land use changes, were analyzed to assess their influence on carbon dynamics. Strong positive correlations between air temperature (TMP) and VD suggest that TMP is a key driver of VD, likely due to increased GEP. Conversely, negative correlations with precipitation (PCP) indicate that increased water input generally reduces VD. Unexpected inverse relationships between PCP and VD are likely driven by peat accumulation's complex hydrological and temporal dynamics. The land use analysis revealed that drained agricultural regions experience significantly higher subsidence rates than well-preserved peatlands, with drainage accelerating peatland degradation by up to 66.7%. These findings highlight the critical role of land use change in peatland degradation, while also revealing that degradation is occurring even in well-preserved areas-suggesting that peatland health is a global challenge. The average VD was negative in all regions studied, ranging from -0.9cm/year in Rospuda to -1.5cm/year in Wizna, indicating ongoing degradation. This pattern suggests that regional factors, likely linked to climate change, are affecting the stability of peatlands in northeastern Poland. This alarming trend highlights the limitations of restoration efforts in fully restoring peat-forming processes and achieving a stable ecological state. These conclusions should be considered when planning peatland conservation strategies, as climate change may significantly limit the effectiveness of restoration efforts.

To better detect drivers of peatland carbon accumulation rates and patterns

Abstract

Considering the autogenic processes of the ecosystem to analyze the sensitivity of peatland carbon accumulation to temperature and hydroclimate change

Peatland carbon accumulation plays a vital role in the global carbon pool and climate change dynamics. However, understanding how peatland carbon accumulation responds to climate change is challenging due to the influence of autogenic processes on carbon dynamics. In this study, we investigate the temporal variations of the Non-autogenic Carbon Accumulation Rate (NCAR) over approximately 1500 years in a peatland located in the Amur River Basin. To remove the effects of autogenic processes, we use conceptual models of peat development and employ plant macrofossils to identify vegetation changes, particularly the fen-bog phase transition. We apply different exponential decay models to capture autogenic processes in the fen and bog phases of the peatland. Subsequently, we analyze the sensitivity of peatland carbon accumulation to temperature and hydroclimate changes in the fen and bog phases, respectively. Our findings show that in the fen phase, higher temperature increases plant litter decomposition more than the plant net primary productivity (NPP) when water content is high, leading to lower NCAR. However, as temperature rises and water content is no longer a limiting factor, plant NPP surpasses plant litter decomposition, resulting in high NCAR. In the bog phase, we find no significant correlation between NCAR and precipitation but observe a positive relationship between NCAR and temperature. These results enhance our understanding of the connections between temperature, moisture, and peatland carbon accumulation by considering the influence of autogenic processes.

Simulating carbon accumulation and loss in the central Congo peatlands.

Peatlands of the central Congo Basin have accumulated carbon over millennia. They currently store some 29 billion tonnes of carbon in peat. However, our understanding of the controls on peat carbon accumulation and loss and the vulnerability of this stored carbon to climate change is in its infancy. Here we present a new model of tropical peatland development, DigiBog_Congo, that we use to simulate peat carbon accumulation and loss in a rain-fed interfluvial peatland that began forming ~20,000 calendar years Before Present (cal. yr BP, where 'present' is 1950 CE). Overall, the simulated age-depth curve is in good agreement with palaeoenvironmental reconstructions derived from a peat core at the same location as our model simulation. We find two key controls on long-term peat accumulation: water at the peat surface (surface wetness) and the very slow anoxic decay of recalcitrant material. Our main simulation shows that between the Late Glacial and early Holocene there were several multidecadal periods where net peat and carbon gain alternated with net loss. Later, a climatic dry phase beginning ~5200 cal. yr BP caused the peatland to become a long-term carbon source from ~3975 to 900 cal. yr BP. Peat as old as ~7000 cal. yr BP was decomposed before the peatland's surface became wetter again, suggesting that changes in rainfall alone were sufficient to cause a catastrophic loss of peat carbon lasting thousands of years. During this time, 6.4 m of the column of peat was lost, resulting in 57% of the simulated carbon stock being released. Our study provides an approach to understanding the future impact of climate change and potential land-use change on this vulnerable store of carbon.

Fire History and Long-Term Carbon Accumulation in Hemi-boreal Peatlands

Fire History and Long-Term Carbon Accumulation in Hemi-boreal Peatlands

The impact of severe pollution from smelter emissions on carbon and metal accumulation in peatlands in Ontario, Canada

Peatlands are unique habitats that function as a carbon (C) sink and an archive of atmospheric metal deposition. Sphagnum mosses are key components of peatlands but can be adversely impacted by air pollution potentially affecting rates of C and metal accumulation in peat. In this study we evaluate how the loss of Sphagnum in peatlands close to a copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) smelter in Sudbury, Ontario affected C accumulation and metal profiles. The depth of accumulated peat formed during the 100+ year period of smelter activities also increased with distance from the smelter. Concurrently, peat bulk density decreased with distance from the smelter, which resulted in relatively similar average rates of apparent C accumulation (32–46 g/m2/yr). These rates are within the range of published values despite the historically high pollution loadings. Surface peat close to the smelters was greatly enriched in Cu and Ni, and Cu profiles in dated peat cores generally coincide with known pollution histories much better than Ni that increased well before the beginning of smelter activities likely a result of post-deposition mobility in peat cores.

Consistent centennial-scale change in European sub-Arctic peatland vegetation toward Sphagnum dominance-Implications for carbon sink capacity.

Climate warming is leading to permafrost thaw in northern peatlands, and current predictions suggest that thawing will drive greater surface wetness and an increase in methane emissions. Hydrology largely drives peatland vegetation composition, which is a key element in peatland functioning and thus in carbon dynamics. These processes are expected to change. Peatland carbon accumulation is determined by the balance between plant production and peat decomposition. But both processes are expected to accelerate in northern peatlands due to warming, leading to uncertainty in future peatland carbon budgets. Here, we compile a dataset of vegetation changes and apparent carbon accumulation data reconstructed from 33 peat cores collected from 16 sub-arctic peatlands in Fennoscandia and European Russia. The data cover the past two millennia that has undergone prominent changes in climate and a notable increase in annual temperatures toward present times. We show a pattern where European sub-Arctic peatland microhabitats have undergone a habitat change where currently drier habitats dominated by Sphagnum mosses replaced wetter sedge-dominated vegetation and these new habitats have remained relatively stable over the recent decades. Our results suggest an alternative future pathway where sub-arctic peatlands may at least partly sustain dry vegetation and enhance the carbon sink capacity of northern peatlands.

A Model Intercomparison Analysis for Controls on C Accumulation in North American Peatlands

AbstractPeatland biogeochemical processes have not been adequately represented in existing earth system models, which might have biased the quantification of Arctic carbon‐climate feedbacks. We revise the Peatland Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (PTEM) by incorporating additional peatland biogeochemical processes. The revised PTEM is evaluated by comparing with Holocene Peatland Model (HPM) in simulating peat physical and biogeochemical dynamics in three North American peatlands: a permafrost‐free fen site, a permafrost‐free bog site and a permafrost bog site. Peatland carbon dynamics are simulated from peat initiation to 1990 and then to year 2300. Model responses to the changes in temperature and precipitation are analyzed to identify key processes affecting peatland carbon accumulation rates. We find that the net C balance is sensitive to water table depth and nutrient availability. Future simulations to year 2300 are conducted with both models under RCP 2.6, RCP 4.5, and RCP 8.5. PTEM predicts these peatlands to be C sources or weaker C sinks when insufficient precipitation suppresses soil moisture and thereby net N mineralization and net primary production, while HPM predicts the same when drier climate leads to increasing water table depth. Our results highlight the importance of water balance and C‐N feedback on peatland C dynamics. With a warmer climate, these peatlands could become a weaker C sink or a source under drier conditions, otherwise a larger C sink if wetter. Improved understanding to peatland processes can help future quantification of peatland C dynamics in the boreal and Arctic regions.

Mineral inputs, paleoecological change, and Holocene carbon accumulation at a boreal peatland in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Canada

The Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) is a vast contiguous peatland extending over >370,000 km2 in Canada's boreal-subarctic, and is the traditional land of the Omushkego Cree. It is currently undergoing climatic warming alongside other anthropogenic stressors, and contains a large below-ground carbon pool. Understanding how climate variability and multiple stressors impact peat accumulation in this region is critical to discerning how northern peatlands will respond to future climate and land-use changes. Pollen- and macrofossil-based paleoecological reconstructions, and analyses of aluminum (Al) and titanium (Ti) fluxes in a Holocene-aged peat core (VM375) taken from a bog in the Attawapiskat watershed were conducted to link ecosystem changes with hydroclimate and long-term carbon storage. Peat initiation is dated to 5780 cal yr B.P., coincident with land emergence driven by glacial isostatic adjustment. From 4500 to 4200 cal yr B.P., apparent rate of carbon accumulation increased, and was linked to more rapid rates of peat accretion and increases in minerotrophic indicators in the pollen record. This increase in peat accretion and shift in vegetation composition co-occur with higher rates of mineral influx as shown by Ti and Al concentrations, which may have supplied nutrients. A fen to bog transition takes place ~3300 cal yr B.P., with increases in Sphagnum spores and macrofossils, and a decline in the apparent rate of carbon accumulation relative to the earlier half of the record, where paleoecological proxies indicate treed wetland and fen stages. Since peat inception, the total carbon stock of the 260-cm peat column is 110 kg C m−2. This multi-proxy record shows an association between changing peat types and variability in apparent rates of carbon accumulation, and supports the hypothesis that mineral nutrients either supplied by surface hydrology or by eolian deposition played a role in Holocene peat carbon accumulation in eastern North American boreal peatlands.

Anthropogenic warming reduces the carbon accumulation of Tibetan Plateau peatlands

Peatland carbon accumulation generally increased during past intervals of natural warming. With recent anthropogenically-dominated warming being unprecedented over the past ∼2000 years, however, it is unclear how peatland carbon dynamics may operate compared to those under historical natural warmings. Here we examine the impacts of the recent warming from 1850 CE to present (Recent Warm Period; RWP) and the historical warming during 1000–1300 CE (Medieval Warm Period; MWP) on peatland carbon accumulation of the Tibetan Plateau using two continuous peat core records. We observed major seasonal difference between the two warming periods, with growing season (summer) warming dominating the MWP, while greater non-growing season warming characterizing the RWP. Consequently, we found a high net carbon balance during the MWP, suggesting that warming increased plant production more than decomposition of organic matter. In contrast, a low net carbon balance was observed during the RWP because non-growing season warming greatly enhanced soil carbon decomposition that could have completely offset plant carbon uptake. Therefore, recent anthropogenic warming might have induced a different ecosystem response with lower net carbon balance over the past millennium than that during historical natural warmings. As other regions of the globe have similar growing season versus non-growing season warming patterns, the risk of carbon loss from global peatlands may have been underestimated, implying that there is an even greater challenge for managing ecosystem carbon sinks under future climate change.

The Impact of Severe Pollution from Smelter Emissions on Carbon and Metal Accumulation in Peatlands

The Impact of Severe Pollution from Smelter Emissions on Carbon and Metal Accumulation in Peatlands

A strong mitigation scenario maintains climate neutrality of northern peatlands

A strong mitigation scenario maintains climate neutrality of northern peatlands

Phosphorus supply affects long-term carbon accumulation in mid-latitude ombrotrophic peatlands

Ombrotrophic peatlands are a globally important carbon store and depend on atmospheric nutrient deposition to balance ecosystem productivity and microbial decomposition. Human activities have increased atmospheric nutrient fluxes, but the impacts of variability in phosphorus supply on carbon sequestration in ombrotrophic peatlands are unclear. Here, we synthesise phosphorus, nitrogen and carbon stoichiometric data in the surface and deeper layers of mid-latitude Sphagnum-dominated peatlands across Europe, North America and Chile. We find that long-term elevated phosphorus deposition and accumulation strongly correlate with increased organic matter decomposition and lower carbon accumulation in the catotelm. This contrasts with literature that finds short-term increases in phosphorus supply stimulates rapid carbon accumulation, suggesting phosphorus deposition imposes a threshold effect on net ecosystem productivity and carbon burial. We suggest phosphorus supply is an important, but overlooked, factor governing long-term carbon storage in ombrotrophic peatlands, raising the prospect that post-industrial phosphorus deposition may degrade this carbon sink.

Holocene peatland development, carbon accumulation and its response to climate forcing and local conditions in Laolike peatland, northeast China

Peatlands are one of the most significant carbon reservoirs in the terrestrial ecosystem. Understanding past peatland carbon accumulation processes and their responses to varying external and internal forcing factors would help reveal the general development patterns of peatland ecosystems and provide useful insights into projecting the fate of carbon reservoirs into the future. In this paper, the basal ages of 17 peat cores were used to explore the lateral expansion processes of the Laolike peatland, northeast China. Two cores were selected to calculate carbon accumulation rates (CAR) and reconstruct moisture/precipitation records based on δ13C and grain size analyses. The basal ages show that the peatland was initiated at 12.1 cal kyr BP, then laterally expanded with its fastest rate occurring during the early Holocene, and reached its largest area around 6 cal kyr BP. The time-weighted mean CAR in the Laolike peatland ranged from 31.1 to 52.9 g C/m2/yr (with an average of 42 g C/m2/yr) during the Holocene. The peatland experienced a high CAR of 52.5 g C/m2/yr from 11.7 to 5 cal kyr BP, followed by a low CAR of 35.1 g C/m2/yr after 5 cal kyr BP. Both lateral expansion and vertical accretion are consistent with the summer insolation, climate seasonality, and the strength of the East Asia summer monsoon (EASM) over multi-millennium timescales, where the CAR correlated well with δ13C and grain size, implying moisture/precipitation might be the primary factors controlling carbon accumulation over millennium timescales. Local conditions, such as topography and hydrology, also played an important role in the process of peatland initiation and lateral expansion, as well as the discrepant CAR within the peatland. This study reveals the roles of climate and local conditions in peatland initiation, expansion, and CAR during the Holocene. In addition, we provide a window for a better understanding of the driving factors of peatland development in the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere.

Time, Hydrologic Landscape, and the Long‐Term Storage of Peatland Carbon in Sedimentary Basins

AbstractPeatland carbon may enter long‐term storage in sedimentary basins preserved as either coal or lignite. The time required to account for the carbon in 1–10 m thick coal seams must represent 105–106 years, an order of magnitude more than previously assumed. To understand the process by which this happens requires extrapolation of our understanding of peatland carbon accumulation over timescales that greatly exceed those of Holocene peat. We analyze the consequences of extrapolating peat growth to periods of 106 years. We deduce that that key to sustained peat growth are hydrologic landscapes that can maintain a saturated peat body above the level of clastic deposition. Contrary to current stratigraphic frameworks, we conclude that the generation of accommodation space at low rates of 0.1–0.2 mm/yr can adequately accommodate thick peat accumulation over periods >105 years. However, generation of accommodation space at rates >0.5 mm/yr cannot. The low rates that permit accommodation of thick peat are typical of the rates of subsidence in specific tectonic settings, particularly foreland basins, and this has implications for our understanding of the links between terrestrial carbon burial, tectonics and the carbon cycle. The long‐term stability of extensive peatland required to form coal also requires sediment bypass, modifying basin wide sediment transport and deposition. Limits to peatland growth under very low accommodation rates must exist but the relative importance of the limiting process is not understood. Finally, we discuss the consequences of these factors for predicting the future of the peatland carbon reservoir.

Carbon accumulation in peatlands along a boreal to subarctic transect in eastern Canada

In this study, we investigated the links between peat carbon accumulation and past ecological and hydrological conditions in three peatlands (Bouleau, Mista, Auassat) which developed along a South-North transect within a watershed encompassing the boreal and subarctic domain in Eastern Canada. Peatland development and long-term apparent rates of carbon accumulation (LORCA) were asynchronous in the watershed, suggesting an influence of both latitude and topography (altitude) on the length of the growing season (GGD0). Results show that peat initiation within the three peatlands (respectively ca. 9070, 8400, and 6270 cal BP) was delayed after the deglaciation and that LORCA (respectively 35.5, 15.4, and 9.0 g C m−2 yr−1) decreased from South to North. Peatland development and fen to bog transitions were found to be almost synchronous for the two southernmost sites. The fen to bog transition in the northernmost subarctic site was delayed until the 20th century, owing to the less favorable climatic conditions. This suggests that recent warming has extended the length of the growing season and increased Sphagnum growth enough to potentially influence an ecosystem state-shift as observed in other Subarctic regions of eastern Canada.

Environmental controls over Holocene carbon accumulation in Distichia muscoides-dominated peatlands in the eastern Andes of Colombia

The long-term carbon (C) and vegetation dynamics of tropical, high-Andean cushion peatlands are poorly understood. Here, we present radiocarbon-dated paleoecological records and modern microclimate data from high-elevation peatlands currently dominated by the cushion plant Distichia muscoides in the páramo (alpine tundra) of the eastern Colombian Andes. Focusing on a well-dated 4300-year-old peat core collected at 4194 m elevation from the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, we investigated the response of peatland vegetation to hydroclimate changes and environmental controls on C accumulation. In addition, we carried out a regional synthesis of existing C accumulation data from northern Andean peatlands to place our new results in broad geographic and temporal context over the last 17,000 years. Our results show that the current Distichia-dominated peatlands are a recent landscape feature on El Cocuy occurring only during the last ∼250 years. The Distichia peatlands have extremely high sediment accumulation rates of up to 1 cm yr−1 and C accumulation rates between 183.7 and 849.5 g C m−2 yr−1, decreasing with the elevation of a site. These rates far exceed an expected modern C accumulation rate of 110 g C m−2 yr−1, calculated by extrapolating an exponential function from a late Holocene average C accumulation rate of 48.6 g C m−2 yr−1 for the northern Andes. This suggests that recent Distichia establishment represents an acceleration of C accumulation at a rate higher than expected from decomposition-related autogenic effects. Before the modern climate warming period, our record indicates that Distichia cushions have only grown intermittently, often after the peatland was flooded with mineral sediments. Mineral sediment deposits at 3290, 2590, 1620, 930, and 860 cal. yr BP correspond with wet intervals from lake-derived records of hydroclimate change in the northern Andes and indicate increases in precipitation and subsequent in-wash of mineral sediments. However, within the last 150 years, mineral sediment deposition has increased in frequency, likely due to warming-induced melting of permanent snow and ice mobilizing exposed fluvio-glacial sediments. Increased mineral nutrients, rising temperatures, and strong diurnal temperature contrast in the tropical mountains may explain the rapid C accumulation rates. Taken together, we show that Andean peatlands have experienced the largest shift in vegetation and C accumulation rates in the last 250 years than at any other time during the last 4000 years.

Ecological response of a glacier-fed peatland to late Holocene climate and glacier changes on subantarctic South Georgia

Sedimentary deposits from glacier-fed peatlands provide records of past glacier variability, but the dynamics of these peat-forming ecosystems have rarely been investigated. Through multi-proxy analyses of a 204-cm peat core, we reconstructed the ecological response of a glacier-fed peatland on subantarctic South Georgia to climate and glacier variability over the last 4300 years. A stable peatland with rapid carbon accumulations and dynamic turnovers between brown mosses and monocots persisted between 4300 and 2550 cal yr BP when the up-valley cirque glacier was small under a regional hypsithermal climate. Carbon accumulation rates showed two peak periods driven by climate warming, reaching 140 g C m−2 yr−1 at 4000–3500 cal yr BP and 70 g C m−2 yr−1 at 3200–2700 cal yr BP. Paired δ13C and δ18O data from brown moss cellulose reveal several intervals of glacial meltwater inundation that caused short-term disturbances of the peatland vegetation, indicating that glacial meltwater potentially still affected the peatland ecosystem during this warm period. Moss-dominated vegetation was disrupted and peatland carbon accumulation rates decreased to 15 g C m−2 yr−1 after around 2550 cal yr BP when a cooling-driven glacier advance shifted the erosion and meltwater regime enhancing the glacial sediment influx onto the peatland. Although this enhanced regime of meltwater disturbance has continued since this transition, the brown moss habitat was gradually re-established during the medieval climate warming between 1200 and 600 cal yr BP and then became dominant shortly after that. This re-establishment of brown mosses might have benefited from a period of increased carbon accumulation rates up to 100 g C m−2 yr−1 at 1200–900 cal yr BP that built up the organic matter matrix and stabilized the habitat. We conclude that the ecosystem dynamics of glacier-fed peatlands is strongly shaped by the interplay between regional climate and glacier activity. This study also demonstrates the potential of stable isotope analysis in studying the paleohydrology of non-Sphagnum peatlands.

A regime shift from erosion to carbon accumulation in a temperate northern peatland

Abstract Peatlands are globally important ecosystems but many are degraded and some are eroding. However, some degraded peatlands are undergoing apparently spontaneous recovery, with switches from erosion to renewed carbon accumulation—a type of ecological regime shift. We used a palaeoecological approach to investigate and help understand such a switch in a blanket peatland in North Wales, UK. Our data show: (a) a rapid accumulation of new peat after the switch from the eroding state, with between 5.2 and 10.6 kg/m2 carbon accumulating since the beginning of the recovery which occurred between the late 1800s and early to mid‐1900s CE, with an average carbon accumulation rate in the new peat between 46 and 121 g C m−2 year−1; (b) three main successional pathways in peat‐forming vegetation and (c) hydrological changes with an increase to moderately high water‐tables after the switch that promoted new carbon accumulation as well as protecting vulnerable old carbon. External factors, including changes in climate and industrial activity, can only partially explain our results. Following previous studies, we suggest that internal ecosystem processes offer a substantial part of the explanation and interpret the switch to renewed carbon accumulation as a bifurcation‐type tipping point involving changes in the physical form of the eroded landscape. Synthesis. Our long‐term ecological data reveal a switch from a degraded peatland with active erosion and loss of carbon to a revegetated, wetter peatland accumulating carbon. The switch can be interpreted as a bifurcation tipping point. We suggest that external factors such as climate and pollution levels are important for setting suitable boundary conditions for peatland recovery, but internal mechanisms can explain the change in peatland state. Our study is the first of its kind to apply tipping point theory to the internal mechanisms linked to peat erosion and recovery and may help improve understanding of the trajectories of other peatlands in a changing climate.

Patterns and drivers of development in a west Amazonian peatland during the late Holocene

Amazonian peatlands sequester and store large amounts of carbon below ground and contribute to regional biodiversity. They also present an outstanding opportunity for palaeoecological research. This study uses multiple peat cores to improve our understanding of the long-term development of a peatland (Quistococha) in Peruvian Amazonia, by providing a reconstruction of the spatial patterns of vegetation change and peat accumulation over time across the site. Peat cores taken along transects totalling c. 5 km were used to establish the peat thickness and visible stratigraphy. Of 29 new peat cores, four were selected for pollen analysis, supported by 15 radiocarbon dates. These complement two existing published pollen records from the site, from a peat core and a lake sediment core. Our study shows that peat initiation occurred across the site in the form of primary mire formation between 2400 and 1900 cal yr BP. Following peat initiation, five broadly similar phases of vegetation development are recorded in all the pollen sequences: Amazon floodplain, herbaceous sedge fen, mixed angiosperm flooded forest, mixed palm swamp, Mauritia-dominated palm swamp. In detail, there are differences in the pattern and timing of vegetation change between the sequences. Much of this spatial variation is likely to be the result of the underlying substrate topography. In addition, we find that the difference in vegetation composition between core sites was greater during the early stages of peat accumulation at Quistococha than it is today. Such spatial and temporal variability has significant implications for computer modelling of carbon accumulation in tropical peatlands and, consequently, our understanding of their role in the global carbon cycle. Our findings highlight key challenges for numerical modelling on Holocene timescales, namely the difficulty in quantifying long-term variations in primary productivity, the variable influence of sediment input on carbon accumulation during the early stages of peatland formation, and the difficulty of modelling water tables in sites with variable underlying topography.