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Raised peat bog development and possible responses to environmental changes during the mid- to late-Holocene. Can the palaeoecological record be used to predict the nature and response of raised peat bogs to future climate change?

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Abstract

Palaeoecological analyses of raised peat bog deposits in northwest Europe show the naturalness, antiquity and robust response of these ecosystems to environmental changes from c. 7800 years ago to the present. A review of the techniques used to identify these long-term features is presented and the role of climate change, autogenic change processes and human disturbance is discussed. Millennial records of vegetation changes recorded in peat deposits demonstrate the response (often rapid) of raised peat bog vegetation to climatic changes during the mid-Holocene, Bronze Age/Iron Age transition and the Little Ice Age. Greenhouse warming scenarios exceed the reconstructed Holocene record of climatic changes (c. the last 11, 500 years), and bog-water tables may fall considerably. A combination of centennial palaeoecological analyses of bogs affected by human disturbance and experimental manipulations have been used as analogues for the potential response of raised peat bog vegetation to these changes. These show that possible greenhouse gas climate forcing scenarios may exceed the ability of Sphagnum- dominated raised peat bogs to respond to projected increases in summer temperature and decreases in summer precipitation. In combination with increasing N deposition, a loss of their Sphagnum-rich vegetation and increases in the abundance of vascular plants could occur on decadal timescales.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Dutch National Research Programme on Global Air Pollution and Climate Change (project 952275), the Research Council for Earth and Life Sciences (ALW project 750.198.12) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Research in Tierra del Fuego was supported through a European Community Marie Curie Fellowship to DM (Contract Number HPMF-CT-2000-01056). We are grateful to all colleagues who have collaborated with us during the development of the research projects and to laboratory staff who have made this research possible. We also thank Bas van Geel for many discussions on peat bog palaeoecology. The review comments of Dan Charman and Paula Reimer helped to improve the paper.

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  1. Geography and Environment, School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, UK

    Dmitri Mauquoy

  2. Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Kruislaan 318, Amsterdam, 1098 SM, The Netherlands

    Dan Yeloff

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Mauquoy, D., Yeloff, D. Raised peat bog development and possible responses to environmental changes during the mid- to late-Holocene. Can the palaeoecological record be used to predict the nature and response of raised peat bogs to future climate change?. Biodivers Conserv 17, 2139–2151 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-007-9222-2

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