Geochemistry of Puscizna Mala peat core from Poland

Geochemistry data of a high-resolution peat core from the Past Global Changes - Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (PAGES_C-PEAT) Project

Age determination of Puscizna Mala peat core from Poland

14C and 210Pb age determination of a high-resolution peat core from the Past Global Changes - Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (PAGES_C-PEAT) Projec

Geochemistry of Bagno Mikoleska peat core from Poland

Geochemistry data of a high-resolution peat core from the Past Global Changes - Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (PAGES_C-PEAT) Project

Age determination of Bagno Mikoleska peat core from Poland

14C and 210Pb age determination of a high-resolution peat core from the Past Global Changes - Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (PAGES_C-PEAT) Project

Calibrated ages of Puscizna Mala peat core from Poland

Calibrated ages of a high-resolution peat core from the Past Global Changes - Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (PAGES_C-PEAT) Project

Calibrated ages of Bagno Mikoleska peat core from Poland

Calibrated ages of a high-resolution peat core from the Past Global Changes - Carbon in Peat on EArth through Time (PAGES_C-PEAT) Project

Hydrological dynamics and fire history of the last 1300 years in western Siberia reconstructed from a high-resolution, ombrotrophic peat archive

Siberian peatlands provide records of past changes in the continental climate of Eurasia. We analyzed a core from Mukhrino mire in western Siberia to reconstruct environmental change in this region over the last 1300 years. The pollen analysis revealed little variation of local pine-birch forests. A testate amoebae transfer function was used to generate a quantitative water-table reconstruction; pollen, plant macrofossils, and charcoal were analyzed to reconstruct changes in vegetation and fire activity. The study revealed that Mukhrino mire was wet until the Little Ice Age (LIA), when drought was recorded. Dry conditions during the LIA are consistent with other studies from central and eastern Europe, and with the pattern of carbon accumulation across the Northern Hemisphere. A significant increase in fire activity between ca. AD 1975 and 1990 may be associated with the development of the nearby city of Khanty-Mansiysk, as well as with the prevailing positive Arctic Oscillation. (C) 2015 University of Washington. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Epochs, events and episodes: Marking the geological impact of humans

International audienc

A database and synthesis of northern peatland soil properties and Holocene carbon and nitrogen accumulation

Here, we present results from the most comprehensive compilation of Holocene peat soil properties with associated carbon and nitrogen accumulation rates for northern peatlands. Our database consists of 268 peat cores from 215 sites located north of 45 degrees N. It encompasses regions within which peat carbon data have only recently become available, such as the West Siberia Lowlands, the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Kamchatka in Far East Russia, and the Tibetan Plateau. For all northern peatlands, carbon content in organic matter was estimated at 42 +/- 3% (standard deviation) for Sphagnum peat, 51 +/- 2% for non-Sphagnum peat, and at 49 +/- 2% overall. Dry bulk density averaged 0.12 +/- 0.07 g/cm(3), organic matter bulk density averaged 0.11 +/- 0.05 g/cm(3), and total carbon content in peat averaged 47 +/- 6%. In general, large differences were found between Sphagnum and non-Sphagnum peat types in terms of peat properties. Time-weighted peat carbon accumulation rates averaged 23 +/- 2 (standard error of mean) g C/m(2)/yr during the Holocene on the basis of 151 peat cores from 127 sites, with the highest rates of carbon accumulation (25-28 g C/m(2)/yr) recorded during the early Holocene when the climate was warmer than the present. Furthermore, we estimate the northern peatland carbon and nitrogen pools at 436 and 10 gigatons, respectively. The database is publicly available at https://peatlands.lehigh.edu

Latitudinal limits to the predicted increase of the peatland carbon sink with warming

The carbon sink potential of peatlands depends on the balance of carbon uptake by plants and microbial decomposition. The rates of both these processes will increase with warming but it remains unclear which will dominate the global peatland response. Here we examine the global relationship between peatland carbon accumulation rates during the last millennium and planetary-scale climate space. A positive relationship is found between carbon accumulation and cumulative photosynthetically active radiation during the growing season for mid- to high-latitude peatlands in both hemispheres. However, this relationship reverses at lower latitudes, suggesting that carbon accumulation is lower under the warmest climate regimes. Projections under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP)2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios indicate that the present-day global sink will increase slightly until around AD 2100 but decline thereafter. Peatlands will remain a carbon sink in the future, but their response to warming switches from a negative to a positive climate feedback (decreased carbon sink with warming) at the end of the twenty-first century