Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates
We discovered a 50-cm-thick peat deposit near Cape Rasmussen (65.2°S), in the maritime Antarctic. To our knowledge, while aerobic ‘moss banks’ have often been examined, waterlogged ‘peatlands’ have never been described in this region before. The waterlogged system is approximately 100 m2, with a sha...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5617846 2023-05-15T13:50:46+02:00 Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates Loisel, Julie Yu, Zicheng Beilman, David W. Kaiser, Karl Parnikoza, Ivan 2017-09-27 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5617846/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28955055 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12479-0 en eng Nature Publishing Group UK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5617846/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28955055 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12479-0 © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. CC-BY Article Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12479-0 2017-10-15T00:07:40Z We discovered a 50-cm-thick peat deposit near Cape Rasmussen (65.2°S), in the maritime Antarctic. To our knowledge, while aerobic ‘moss banks’ have often been examined, waterlogged ‘peatlands’ have never been described in this region before. The waterlogged system is approximately 100 m2, with a shallow water table. Surface vegetation is dominated by Warnstorfia fontinaliopsis, a wet-adapted moss commonly found in the Antarctic Peninsula. Peat inception was dated at 2750 cal. BP and was followed by relatively rapid peat accumulation (~0.1 cm/year) until 2150 cal. BP. Our multi-proxy analysis then shows a 2000-year-long stratigraphic hiatus as well as the recent resurgence of peat accumulation, sometime after 1950 AD. The existence of a thriving peatland at 2700–2150 cal. BP implies regionally warm summer conditions extending beyond the mid-Holocene; this finding is corroborated by many regional records showing moss bank initiation and decreased sea ice extent during this time period. Recent peatland recovery at the study site (<50 years ago) might have been triggered by ongoing rapid warming, as the area is experiencing climatic conditions approaching those found on milder, peatland-rich sub-Antarctic islands (50–60°S). Assuming that colonization opportunities and stabilization mechanisms would allow peat to persist in Antarctica, our results suggest that longer and warmer growing seasons in the maritime Antarctic region may promote a more peatland-rich landscape in the future. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Sea ice PubMed Central (PMC) Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Rasmussen ENVELOPE(-64.084,-64.084,-65.248,-65.248) The Antarctic Scientific Reports 7 1 |
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Article Loisel, Julie Yu, Zicheng Beilman, David W. Kaiser, Karl Parnikoza, Ivan Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates |
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Article |
description |
We discovered a 50-cm-thick peat deposit near Cape Rasmussen (65.2°S), in the maritime Antarctic. To our knowledge, while aerobic ‘moss banks’ have often been examined, waterlogged ‘peatlands’ have never been described in this region before. The waterlogged system is approximately 100 m2, with a shallow water table. Surface vegetation is dominated by Warnstorfia fontinaliopsis, a wet-adapted moss commonly found in the Antarctic Peninsula. Peat inception was dated at 2750 cal. BP and was followed by relatively rapid peat accumulation (~0.1 cm/year) until 2150 cal. BP. Our multi-proxy analysis then shows a 2000-year-long stratigraphic hiatus as well as the recent resurgence of peat accumulation, sometime after 1950 AD. The existence of a thriving peatland at 2700–2150 cal. BP implies regionally warm summer conditions extending beyond the mid-Holocene; this finding is corroborated by many regional records showing moss bank initiation and decreased sea ice extent during this time period. Recent peatland recovery at the study site (<50 years ago) might have been triggered by ongoing rapid warming, as the area is experiencing climatic conditions approaching those found on milder, peatland-rich sub-Antarctic islands (50–60°S). Assuming that colonization opportunities and stabilization mechanisms would allow peat to persist in Antarctica, our results suggest that longer and warmer growing seasons in the maritime Antarctic region may promote a more peatland-rich landscape in the future. |
format |
Text |
author |
Loisel, Julie Yu, Zicheng Beilman, David W. Kaiser, Karl Parnikoza, Ivan |
author_facet |
Loisel, Julie Yu, Zicheng Beilman, David W. Kaiser, Karl Parnikoza, Ivan |
author_sort |
Loisel, Julie |
title |
Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates |
title_short |
Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates |
title_full |
Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates |
title_fullStr |
Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates |
title_full_unstemmed |
Peatland Ecosystem Processes in the Maritime Antarctic During Warm Climates |
title_sort |
peatland ecosystem processes in the maritime antarctic during warm climates |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group UK |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5617846/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28955055 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12479-0 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.084,-64.084,-65.248,-65.248) |
geographic |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Rasmussen The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Rasmussen The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctic Peninsula Antarctica Sea ice |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5617846/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28955055 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12479-0 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-12479-0 |
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Scientific Reports |
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