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Key periods of peatland development and environmental changes in the middle taiga zone of Western Siberia during the Holocene

  • Siberian Environmental Change
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Abstract

The response of peatlands to climate change can be highly variable. Through understanding past changes we can better predict the response of peatlands to future climate change. We use a multi-proxy approach to reconstruct the surface wetness and carbon accumulation of the Mukhrino mire (Western Siberia), describing the development of the mire since peat formation in the early Holocene, around 9360 cal. year BP. The mire started as a rich fen which initiated after paludification of a spruce forest (probably in response to a wetter climate), while the Mukhrino mire progressed to ombrotrophic bog conditions (8760 cal. year BP). This transition coincided with the intensive development of mires in Western Siberia and was associated with active carbon accumulation (31 g m−2 year−1). The ecosystem underwent a change to a tree-covered state around 5860 cal. year BP, likely in response to warming and possible droughts and this accompanied low carbon accumulation (12 g m2 year−1). If the future climate will be warmer and wetter, then regional mires are likely to remain a carbon sink, alternatively, a reversion to the wooded state with reduced carbon sink strength is possible.

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Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (№ 19-14-00102), the grant of the Tyumen region Government in accordance with the Program of the World-Class West Siberian Interregional Scientific and Educational Center (National Project “Nauka”), Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Government of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous region (№ 18-44-860017), grant of the Yugra State University (13-01-20/39) and INTERACT-II TA funding for the projects TREEPEAT and PEATSURE. This research was performed within the frameworks of the Development program of the Interdisciplinary Scientific and Educational School of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University “The future of the planet and global environmental change”.

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  1. Richard J. Payne—deceased.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Ecology and Hydrobiology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1, building 12, Moscow, Russia, 119234

    Andrey N. Tsyganov & Yuri A. Mazei

  2. Laboratory of Soil Zoology and General Entomology, A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskiy prospekt 33, Moscow, Russia, 119071

    Andrey N. Tsyganov & Yuri A. Mazei

  3. Research Education Center of Environmental Dynamics and Climate Change (UNESCO Chair), Yugra State University, Chekhova str. 16, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, 628007

    Evgeny A. Zarov, Mikhail G. Kulkov & Elena D. Lapshina

  4. Research and Analytical Centre for the Rational Use of the Subsoil named after V.I.Shpilman, Studencheskaya str. 2, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, 628007

    Mikhail G. Kulkov

  5. Department of General Biology and Biochemistry, Penza State University, Lermontova str. 37, building 15, Penza, Russia, 440026

    Kirill V. Babeshko & Yulia A. Fatyunina

  6. Department of Zoology and Ecology, Penza State University, Lermontova str. 37, building 15, Penza, Russia, 440026

    Kirill V. Babeshko & Svetlana Y. Yushkovets

  7. Environment Department, University of York, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Richard J. Payne

  8. Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden

    Joshua L. Ratcliffe

  9. Laboratory of Radiocarbon Dating and Electron Microscopy, Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science (IG RAS), Staromonetniy Lane 29, Moscow, Russia, 119017

    Elya P. Zazovskaya

  10. Faculty of Biology, Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, 1 International University Park Road, Dayun New Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, 517182, China

    Yuri A. Mazei

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  1. Andrey N. Tsyganov
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  2. Evgeny A. Zarov
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  3. Yuri A. Mazei
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  11. Elena D. Lapshina
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Contributions

EDL, YAM, RJP, ANT and EAZ conceived the study; YAM, RJP and EDL secured funding; EDL, KVB, ANT, RJP, JLR and EAZ conducted fieldwork; KVB and SYY performed testate amoeba analysis; EDL conducted plant macrofossils analysis; EAZ conducted carbon, nitrogen, bulk density, ash content analysis, MGK conducted n-alkane analysis; YAF conducted peat humification analysis; EPZ conducted radiocarbon dating; ANT, EAZ, EDL, and YAM conducted data analysis and wrote the first draft of the manuscript to which all authors (with the exception of RJP—deceased) contributed.

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Correspondence to Andrey N. Tsyganov.

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Tsyganov, A.N., Zarov, E.A., Mazei, Y.A. et al. Key periods of peatland development and environmental changes in the middle taiga zone of Western Siberia during the Holocene. Ambio 50, 1896–1909 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01545-7

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