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

Joshua Ratcliffe; Roxane Andersen; Russell Anderson; Anthony Newton; David Campbell; Dimitri Mauquoy; Richard Payne

doi:10.1177/0959683617715689

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

Joshua Ratcliffe
, Roxane Andersen
, Russell Anderson
, Anthony Newton
, David Campbell
, Dimitri Mauquoy
, Richard Payne

Geography & Environment

University of Waikato
University of the Highlands and Islands
Forestry Commission England
University of Edinburgh
University of York
Penza State University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

21 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	140-149
Number of pages	10
Journal	The Holocene
Volume	28
Issue number	1
Early online date	30 Jun 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683617715689
Publication status	Published - Jan 2018

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the RSPB, Patrick Sinclair and the Forestry Commission for granting access to the field sites and for help in retrieving the peat cores. Angela Creevy and David Braidwood and volunteers from Forsinard Flows NNR helped with the core collection, while Professor Stuart Gibb, Lara Heppenstall, Dr Chris Hayward and Norrie Russell provided valuable advice and assistance.

Funding
This work was primarily funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (grant LG13STIR007), the British Ecological Society and the Royal Society. RP and RA acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2015-162) and RP was funded by the Russian Scientific Fund (14-14-00891).

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 15 Life on Land

Keywords

Flow Country
ITRAX
core-scanning
LORCA
peat
tephrochronology
Scotland

Access to Document

10.1177/0959683617715689Licence: Unspecified

Accepted Manuscript
Joshua Ratcliffe, Roxane Andersen, Russell Anderson, Anthony Newton, David Campbell, Dmitri Mauquoy, Richard Payne, Contemporary carbon fluxes do not reflect the long-term carbon balance for an Atlantic blanket bog, The Holocene 28(1) pp. 140-149. Copyright © 2017 by SAGE Publications. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.
Accepted author manuscript, 1.66 MBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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

abstract = "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.",

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author = "Joshua Ratcliffe and Roxane Andersen and Russell Anderson and Anthony Newton and David Campbell and Dimitri Mauquoy and Richard Payne",

note = "Acknowledgements We would like to thank the RSPB, Patrick Sinclair and the Forestry Commission for granting access to the field sites and for help in retrieving the peat cores. Angela Creevy and David Braidwood and volunteers from Forsinard Flows NNR helped with the core collection, while Professor Stuart Gibb, Lara Heppenstall, Dr Chris Hayward and Norrie Russell provided valuable advice and assistance. Funding This work was primarily funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (grant LG13STIR007), the British Ecological Society and the Royal Society. RP and RA acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2015-162) and RP was funded by the Russian Scientific Fund (14-14-00891). ",

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AU - Campbell, David

AU - Mauquoy, Dimitri

AU - Payne, Richard

N1 - Acknowledgements We would like to thank the RSPB, Patrick Sinclair and the Forestry Commission for granting access to the field sites and for help in retrieving the peat cores. Angela Creevy and David Braidwood and volunteers from Forsinard Flows NNR helped with the core collection, while Professor Stuart Gibb, Lara Heppenstall, Dr Chris Hayward and Norrie Russell provided valuable advice and assistance. Funding This work was primarily funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (grant LG13STIR007), the British Ecological Society and the Royal Society. RP and RA acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2015-162) and RP was funded by the Russian Scientific Fund (14-14-00891).

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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.

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KW - tephrochronology

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JO - The Holocene

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ER -

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

Abstract

Bibliographical note

UN SDGs

Keywords

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