Kettle-hole peatlands as carbon hot spots: Unveiling controls of carbon accumulation rates during the last two millennia

Understanding carbon sequestration patterns in time and space is crucial for models and future projections of carbon uptake. However, their past provides an insight to this understanding, and peatlands play an essential role in the carbon cycle. Hence, peat carbon accumulation rates (PCAR) were reconstructed for the last ±1500 years in three Polish kettle-hole peatlands (Jaczno, Głęboczek and Pawski Ług bogs). Absolute chronologies, retrieved from the Bayesian age-depth models based on high-resolution ¹⁴C AMS dating, provided good time control, whereas the selected time interval spanned a broad spectrum of environmental changes and human activity. An additional variable was connected to climate, as the chosen sites are situated along the west-east gradient of northern Poland. The aim was to find factors responsible for changes in carbon accumulation, so the results of PCAR were combined with pollen, testate amoebae, plant macrofossil, and charcoal data. The research showed that the investigated peatlands varied regarding local environmental conditions (e.g. water level), peatland development, vegetation changes, and fire activity. Generally, the PCAR values were higher in the Sphagnum-dominated sections of the profiles with high shares of mixotrophic testate amoebae unless fire hampered the carbon sequestration. However, our research showed that the changes in carbon uptake resulted from various overlapping factors rather than just one. Nevertheless, high values of PCAR in Jaczno and Pawski Ług (mean 74.6 and 79.64 g C/m²/yr, respectively) point to kettle-hole peatlands being exceptionally efficient in carbon sequestration.