Morris, PJ orcid.org/0000-0002-1145-1478, Baird, A orcid.org/0000-0001-8198-3229, Young, D orcid.org/0000-0002-6519-5473 et al. (1 more author) (2015) Untangling climate signals from autogenic changes in long-term peatland development. Geophysical Research Letters, 42 (24). pp. 10788-10797. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
Peatlands represent important archives of Holocene paleoclimatic information. However, autogenic processes may disconnect peatland hydrological behavior from climate and overwrite climatic signals in peat records. We use a simulation model of peatland development driven by a range of Holocene climate reconstructions to investigate climate signal preservation in peat records. Simulated water-table depths and peat decomposition profiles exhibit homeostatic recovery from prescribed changes in rainfall, whereas changes in temperature cause lasting alterations to peatland structure and function. Autogenic ecohydrological feedbacks provide both high- and low-pass filters for climatic information, particularly rainfall: large-magnitude climatic changes of an intermediate temporal scale (i.e., multi-decadal to centennial) are most readily preserved in our simulated peat records. Simulated decomposition signals are offset from the climatic changes that generate them due to a phenomenon known as secondary decomposition. Our study provides the mechanistic foundations for a framework to separate climatic and autogenic signals in peat records.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015, The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Holocene climate; ecohydrological feedback; peatland signal preservation; peatland signal shredding; 4.2 ka B.P. event; DigiBog |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > River Basin Processes & Management (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 24 Nov 2015 10:56 |
Last Modified: | 02 Dec 2020 17:30 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015GL066824 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/2015GL066824 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:92196 |