An 8000-year multi-proxy peat-based palaeoclimate record from Newfoundland: Evidence of coherent changes in bog surface wetness and ocean circulation

Energy carried by warm tropical water, transported via the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), plays a vital role in regulating the climate of regions bordering the North Atlantic Ocean. Previous phases of elevated freshwater input to areas of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) production in the early to mid-Holocene have been linked with slow-downs in the AMOC and changes in regional climate. Newfoundland’s proximity in the North Atlantic region to the confluence of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current and to an area of NADW production in the Labrador Sea makes it an ideal testing ground to investigate the influence of past fluctuations in ocean circulation on terrestrial ecosystems. We use multi-proxy peat-based records from the east coast of Newfoundland to derive a proxy-climate signal for the last 8000 years, which we have compared with changes in ocean circulation. Prominent shifts towards near-surface bog water table levels, reflecting cooler/wetter climatic conditions, are evident in the early-mid Holocene c. 7830, 7500, 7220 and 6600 cal. BP with minor changes occurring c. 6340, and 6110 cal. BP. These events are coherent with evidence of meltwater injections into the N. Atlantic and of reduced NADW production. More recent increases in bog surface wetness in the mid-late Holocene c. 4290 and c. 2610 cal. BP are also consistent with reported periods of reduced NADW production. Coherence between the bog-derived palaeoclimate record developed from Newfoundland and evidence of fluctuations in ocean current strength is apparent in the early mid-Holocene

Vertical zonation of testate amoebae in the Elatia Mires, northern Greece : palaeoecological evidence for a wetland response to recent climate change or autogenic processes?

The Elatia Mires of northern Greece are unique ecosystems of high conservation value. The mires are climatically marginal and may be sensitive to changing hydroclimate, while northern Greece has experienced a significant increase in aridity since the late twentieth century. To investigate the impact of recent climatic change on the hydrology of the mires, the palaeoecological record was investigated from three near-surface monoliths extracted from two sites. Testate amoebae were analysed as sensitive indicators of hydrology. Results were interpreted using transfer function models to provide quantitative reconstructions of changing water table depth and pH. AMS radiocarbon dates and 210Pb suggest the peats were deposited within the last c. 50 years, but do not allow a secure chronology to be established. Results from all three profiles show a distinct shift towards a more xerophilic community particularly noted by increases in Euglypha species. Transfer function results infer a distinct lowering of water tables in this period. A hydrological response to recent climate change is a tenable hypothesis to explain this change; however other possible explanations include selective test decay, vertical zonation of living amoebae, ombrotrophication and local hydrological change. It is suggested that a peatland response to climatic change is the most probable hypothesis, showing the sensitivity of marginal peatlands to recent climatic change

Misinterpreting carbon accumulation rates in records from near-surface peat

Peatlands are globally important stores of carbon (C) that contain a record of how their rates of C accumulation have changed over time. Recently, near-surface peat has been used to assess the effect of current land use practices on C accumulation rates in peatlands. However, the notion that accumulation rates in recently formed peat can be compared to those from older, deeper, peat is mistaken – continued decomposition means that the majority of newly added material will not become part of the long-term C store. Palaeoecologists have known for some time that high apparent C accumulation rates in recently formed peat are an artefact and take steps to account for it. Here we show, using a model, how the artefact arises. We also demonstrate that increased C accumulation rates in near-surface peat cannot be used to infer that a peatland as a whole is accumulating more C – in fact the reverse can be true because deep peat can be modified by events hundreds of years after it was formed. Our findings highlight that care is needed when evaluating recent C addition to peatlands especially because these interpretations could be wrongly used to inform land use policy and decisions

Drivers of Holocene peatland carbon accumulation across a climate gradient in northeastern North America

Peatlands are an important component of the Holocene global carbon (C) cycle and the rate of C sequestration and storage is driven by the balance between net primary productivity and decay. A number of studies now suggest that climate is a key driver of peatland C accumulation at large spatial scales and over long timescales, with warmer conditions associated with higher rates of C accumulation. However, other factors are also likely to play a significant role in determining local carbon accumulation rates and these may modify past, present and future peatland carbon sequestration. Here, we test the importance of climate as a driver of C accumulation, compared with hydrological change, fire, nitrogen content and vegetation type, from records of C accumulation at three sites in northeastern North America, across the N-S climate gradient of raised bog distribution. Radiocarbon age models, bulk density values and %C measurements from each site are used to construct C accumulation histories commencing between 11,200 and 8000cal. years BP. The relationship between C accumulation and environmental variables (past water table depth, fire, peat forming vegetation and nitrogen content) is assessed with linear and multivariate regression analyses. Differences in long-term rates of carbon accumulation between sites support the contention that a warmer climate with longer growing seasons results in faster rates of long-term carbon accumulation. However, mid-late Holocene accumulation rates show divergent trends, decreasing in the north but rising in the south. We hypothesise that sites close to the moisture threshold for raised bog distribution increased their growth rate in response to a cooler climate with lower evapotranspiration in the late Holocene, but net primary productivity declined over the same period in northern areas causing a decrease in C accumulation. There was no clear relationship between C accumulation and hydrological change, vegetation, nitrogen content or fire, but early successional stages of peatland growth had faster rates of C accumulation even though temperatures were probably lower at the time. We conclude that climate is the most important driver of peatland accumulation rates over millennial timescales, but that successional vegetation change is a significant additional influence. Whilst the majority of northern peatlands are likely to increase C accumulation rates under future warmer climates, those at the southern limit of distribution may show reduced rates. However, early succession peatlands that develop under future warming at the northern limits of peatland distribution are likely to have high rates of C accumulation and will compensate for some of the losses elsewhere

The Falkland Islands’ palaeoecological response to millennial‐scale climate perturbations during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition: implications for future vegetation stability in the southern ocean islands

Oceanic island flora is vulnerable to future climate warming, which is likely to promote changes in vegetation composition, and invasion of non‐native species. Sub‐Antarctic islands are predicted to experience rapid warming during the next century; therefore, establishing trajectories of change in vegetation communities is essential for developing conservation strategies to preserve biological diversity. We present a Late‐glacial‐early Holocene (16 500–6450 cal a bp) palaeoecological record from Hooker's Point, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), South Atlantic. This period spans the Pleistocene‐Holocene transition, providing insight into biological responses to abrupt climate change. Pollen and plant macrofossil records appear insensitive to climatic cooling during the Late‐glacial, but undergo rapid turnover in response to regional warming. The absence of trees throughout the Late‐glacial‐early Holocene enables the recognition of far‐travelled pollen from southern South America. The first occurrence of Nothofagus (southern beech) may reflect changes in the strength and/or position of the Southern Westerly Wind Belt during the Late‐glacial period. Peat inception and accumulation at Hooker's Point is likely to be promoted by the recalcitrant litter of wind‐adapted flora. This recalcitrant litter helps to explain widespread peatland development in a comparatively dry environment, and suggests that wind‐adapted peatlands can remain carbon sinks even under low precipitation regimes

Potential implications of differential preservation of testate amoeba shells for paleoenvironmental reconstruction in peatlands

Testate amoebae are now commonly used in paleoenvironmental studies but little is known of their taphonomy. There is some experimental evidence for differential preservation of some testate amoeba shell types over others, but it is unclear what, if any impact this has on palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. To investigate this issue we looked at palaeoecological evidence for the preservation of different shell types. We then investigated the possible impact of selective preservation on quantitative palaeoenvironmental inference. We first used existing palaeoecological data sets to assess the vertical patterns of relative abundance in four testate amoeba shell types: (1) shells made of secreted biosilica plates (idiosomes, e.g. Euglypha), (2) idiosomes with thick organic coating (Assulina), (3) proteinaceous shells (e.g. Hyalosphenia), (4) shells built from recycled organic or mineral particles (xenosomes) (e.g. Difflugia, Centropyxis). In three diagrams a clear pattern of decay was only observed for the idiosome type. In order to assess the implications of differential preservation of testate amoeba taxa for paleoenvironmental reconstruction we then carried out simulations using three existing transfer functions and a wide range of scenarios, downweighting different test categories to represent the impact of selective test decomposition. Simulation results showed that downweighting generally reduced overall model performance. However downweighting a shell type only produced a consistent directional bias in inferred water table depth where that shell type is both dominant and shows a clear preference along the ecological gradient. Applying a scenario derived from previous experimental work did not lead to significant difference in inferred water table. Our results show that differential shell preservation has little impact on paleohydrological reconstruction from Sphagnum-dominated peatlands. By contrast, for the minerotrophic peatlands data-set loss of idiosome tests leads to consistent underestimation of water table depth. However there are few studies from fens and it is possible that idiosome tests are not always dominant, and/or that differential decomposition is less marked than in Sphagnum peatlands. Further work is clearly needed to assess the potential of testate amoebae for paleoecological studies of minerotrophic peatlands

Introducing global peat-specific temperature and pH calibrations based on brGDGT bacterial lipids

Glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) are membrane-spanning lipids from Bacteria and Archaea that are ubiquitous in a range of natural archives and especially abundant in peat. Previous work demonstrated that the distribution of bacterial branched GDGTs (brGDGTs) in mineral soils is correlated to environmental factors such as mean annual air temperature (MAAT) and soil pH. However, the influence of these parameters on brGDGT distributions in peat is largely unknown. Here we investigate the distribution of brGDGTs in 470 samples from 96 peatlands around the world with a broad mean annual air temperature (-8 to 27 degrees C) and pH (3-8) range and present the first peat-specific brGDGT-based temperature and pH calibrations. Our results demonstrate that the degree of cyclisation of brGDGTs in peat is positively correlated with pH, pH = 2.49 x CBTpeat + 8.07 (n = 51, R-2 = 0.58, RMSE = 0.8) and the degree of methylation of brGDGTs is positively correlated with MAAT, MAAT(peat) (degrees C) = 52.18 x MBT'(5me) - 23.05 (n = 96, R-2 = 0.76, RMSE = 4.7 degrees C). These peat-specific calibrations are distinct from the available mineral soil calibrations. In light of the error in the temperature calibration (similar to 4.7 degrees C), we urge caution in any application to reconstruct late Holocene climate variability, where the climatic signals are relatively small, and the duration of excursions could be brief. Instead, these proxies are well-suited to reconstruct large amplitude, longer-term shifts in climate such as deglacial transitions. Indeed, when applied to a peat deposit spanning the late glacial period (similar to 15.2 kyr), we demonstrate that MAAT(peat) yields absolute temperatures and relative temperature changes that are consistent with those from other proxies. In addition, the application of MAAT(peat) to fossil peat (i.e. lignites) has the potential to reconstruct terrestrial climate during the Cenozoic. We conclude that there is clear potential to use brGDGTs in peats and lignites to reconstruct past terrestrial climate. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Microtopographic drivers of vegetation patterning in blanket peatlands recovering from erosion

Blanket peatlands are globally rare, and many have been severely eroded. Natural recovery and revegetation (‘self-restoration’) of bare peat surfaces are often observed but are poorly understood, thus hampering the ability to reliably predict how these ecosystems may respond to climatic change. We hypothesised that morphometric/topographic-related microclimatic variables may be key controls on successional pathways and vegetation patterning in self-restoring blanket peatlands. We predicted the occurrence probability of four common peatland plant species (Calluna vulgaris, Eriophorum vaginatum, Eriophorum angustifolium, and Sphagnum spp.) using a digital surface model (DSM) generated from drone imagery at a pixel size of 20 cm, a suite of variables derived from the DSM, and an ensemble learning method (random forests). All four species models provided accurate fine-scale predictions of habitat suitability (accuracy > 90%, area under curve (AUC) > 0.9, recall and precision > 0.8). Mean elevation (within a 1 m radius) was often the most influential variable. Topographic position, wind exposure, and the heterogeneity or ruggedness of the surrounding surface were also important for all models, whilst light-related variables and a wetness index were important in the Sphagnum model. Our approach can be used to improve prediction of future responses and sensitivities of peatland recovery to climatic changes and as a tool to identify areas of blanket peatlands that may self-restore successfully without management intervention