Climate and peatlands

• Main Authors: de Jong, Rixt, Blaauw, Maarten, Chambers, Frank, M, Christensen, Torben, R, Finsinger, Walter, Fronzek, Stefan, Johansson, Margaretha, Kokfelt, Ulla, Lamentowicz, Mariusz, Le Roux, Gaël, Mauquoy, Dmitri, Mitchell, Edward, a D, Nichols, Jonathan, E, Samaritani, Emanuela, van Geel, Bas
• Other Authors: Universität Bern / University of Bern (UNIBE), Laboratoire Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement (LEFE), Institut Ecologie et Environnement - CNRS Ecologie et Environnement (INEE-CNRS), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université de Toulouse (UT), Springer
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2010
• Subjects: Climate; Peatland; [SDV.EE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment; permafrost
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04384721; https://hal.science/hal-04384721/document; https://hal.science/hal-04384721/file/De_Jong_2010.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8716-4_5

International audience Peatlands are an important natural archive for past climatic changes, primarily due to their sensitivity to changes in the water balance and the dating possibilities of peat sediments. In addition, peatlands are an important sink as well as potential source of greenhouse gases. The first part of this chapter discusses a range of well-established and novel proxies studied in peat cores (peat humification, macrofossils, testate amoebae, stomatal records from subfossil leaves, organic biomarkers and stable isotope ratios, aeolian sediment influx and geochemistry) that are used for climatic and environmental reconstructions, as well as recent developments in the dating of these sediments. The second part focuses on the role that peatland ecosystems may play as a source or sink of greenhouse gases. Emphasis is placed on the past and future development of peatlands in the discontinuous permafrost areas of northern Scandinavia, and the role of regenerating mined peatlands in north-western Europe as a carbon sink or source.