Contemporary carbon fluxes do not reflect the long-term carbon balance for an Atlantic blanket bog

TY - JOUR

T1 - Contemporary carbon fluxes do not reflect the long-term carbon balance for an Atlantic blanket bog

AU - Ratcliffe, Joshua

AU - Andersen, roxane

AU - Anderson, Russell

AU - newton, anthony

AU - Campbell, David

AU - mauquoy, dmitri

AU - Payne, Richard

N1 - This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2018/1/1

Y1 - 2018/1/1

N2 - Peatlands are one of the largest terrestrial stores of carbon. Carbon exchange in peatlands is often assessed solely by measurement of contemporary fluxes; however, these fluxes frequently indicate a much stronger sink strength than that measured by the rate of C accumulation in the peat profile over longer timescales. Here we compare profile-based measurements of C accumulation with the published net ecosystem C balance for the largest peatland area in Britain, the Flow Country of northern Scotland. We estimate the long-term rate of C accumulation to be 15.4 g C m−2 yr−1 for a site where a recent eddy covariance study has suggested contemporary C uptake more than six times greater (99.37 g C m−2 yr−1). Our estimate is supported by two further long-term C accumulation records from nearby sites which give comparable results. We demonstrate that a strong contemporary C sink strength may not equate to a strong long-term sink and explore reasons for this disparity. We recommend that contemporary C sequestration should be viewed in the context of the long-term ecological drivers, such as fires, ecohydrological feedbacks and the changing quality of litter inputs.

AB - Peatlands are one of the largest terrestrial stores of carbon. Carbon exchange in peatlands is often assessed solely by measurement of contemporary fluxes; however, these fluxes frequently indicate a much stronger sink strength than that measured by the rate of C accumulation in the peat profile over longer timescales. Here we compare profile-based measurements of C accumulation with the published net ecosystem C balance for the largest peatland area in Britain, the Flow Country of northern Scotland. We estimate the long-term rate of C accumulation to be 15.4 g C m−2 yr−1 for a site where a recent eddy covariance study has suggested contemporary C uptake more than six times greater (99.37 g C m−2 yr−1). Our estimate is supported by two further long-term C accumulation records from nearby sites which give comparable results. We demonstrate that a strong contemporary C sink strength may not equate to a strong long-term sink and explore reasons for this disparity. We recommend that contemporary C sequestration should be viewed in the context of the long-term ecological drivers, such as fires, ecohydrological feedbacks and the changing quality of litter inputs.

KW - core scanning

KW - Flow Country

KW - ITRAX

KW - LORCA

KW - peat

KW - Scotland

KW - tephrochronology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040369740&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0959683617715689

DO - 10.1177/0959683617715689

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85040369740

SN - 0959-6836

VL - 28

SP - 140

EP - 149

JO - The Holocene

JF - The Holocene

IS - 1

ER -