Holocene hydro-climatic change and effects on carbon accumulation inferred from a peat bog in the Attawapiskat River watershed, Hudson Bay Lowlands, Canada

• Published in: Quaternary Research
• Main Authors: Bunbury, Joan, Finkelstein, Sarah A., Bollmann, Jörg
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2012
• Subjects: Attawapiskat; Attawapiskat River; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2012.05.013; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0033589412000609?httpAccept=text/xml; http://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0033589412000609?httpAccept=text/plain; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033589400008644

Abstract Multiple proxies from a 319-cm peat core collected from the Hudson Bay Lowlands, northern Ontario, Canada were analyzed to determine how carbon accumulation has varied as a function of paleohydrology and paleoclimate. Testate amoeba assemblages, analysis of peat composition and humification, and a pollen record from a nearby lake suggest that isostatic rebound and climate may have influenced peatland growth and carbon dynamics over the past 6700 cal yr BP. Long-term apparent rates of carbon accumulation ranged between 8.1 and 36.7 g C m − 2 yr − 1 (average = 18.9 g C m − 2 yr − 1 ). The highest carbon accumulation estimates were recorded prior to 5400 cal yr BP when a fen existed at this site, however following the fen-to-bog transition carbon accumulation stabilized. Carbon accumulation remained relatively constant through the Neoglacial period after 2400 cal yr BP when pollen-based paleoclimate reconstructions from a nearby lake (McAndrews et al., 1982) and reconstructions of the depth to the water table derived from testate amoeba data suggest a wetter climate. More carbon accumulated per unit time between 1000 and 600 cal yr BP, coinciding in part with the Medieval Climate Anomaly.