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Recent Vegetation Dynamics and Hydrological Changes in Bogs Located in an Agricultural Landscape

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Abstract

This study aims to reconstruct the recent dynamics of two bogs located in an agricultural landscape and to determine which factors favour tree expansion, the most salient change recently reported in treeless peatlands. The vegetation and hydrological dynamics of the bogs as well as land use changes in the vicinity were reconstructed using a combination of paleoecological, paleohydrological, and historical approaches. It was hypothesized that upland deforestation indirectly induced atmospheric mineral dust deposition on sites, thus increasing nutrient availability and triggering forest expansion. Results indicated that a widespread, but asynchronous tree expansion occurred in both bogs during the 20th century. However, no evidence suggesting that nutrient enrichment favoured the phenomenon was found. Forest expansion seems rather to have been favoured by drying of the peat surface, as a decrease of the water table depth coincided with the beginning of the forest encroachment on both sites. This drying correlated with the establishment of an in situ artificial drainage ditch on one site and with agricultural development in the catchment of the other. Local historical factors of each site apparently override regional factors such as climate anomalies or upland deforestation in explaining rapid, abrupt changes in bogs.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by the Fonds de recherche Nature et technologies (Team grant to M. Larocque and S. Pellerin), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery grant to S. Pellerin: RGPIN-2014-05367), the Friends of the Montréal Botanical Garden and the Ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques du Québec. Our thanks to the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science for providing grants to A. Boucheny, as well as E.R. Robert, C. Michaud and H. Asnong for their technical contributions, A. Lamarre for testate amoebae analyses, K. Grislis for English revision and two anonymous reviewers for comments on a previous version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de recherche en biologie végétale, Université de Montréal and Jardin botanique de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Stéphanie Pellerin & Arnaud Boucheny

  2. Département de géographie and Centre d’études nordiques, Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada

    Martin Lavoie

  3. Département des sciences de la Terre et de l’atmosphère, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Marie Larocque

  4. GEOTOP – Geochemistry and Geodynamics Research Center, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Marie Larocque & Michelle Garneau

  5. Département de géographie, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Michelle Garneau

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  1. Stéphanie Pellerin
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  2. Martin Lavoie
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Correspondence to Stéphanie Pellerin.

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Pellerin, S., Lavoie, M., Boucheny, A. et al. Recent Vegetation Dynamics and Hydrological Changes in Bogs Located in an Agricultural Landscape. Wetlands 36, 159–168 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-015-0726-3

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