A tropical Sphagnum peatland ecosystem in lowland Belize.

Tropical peatlands are globally significant ecosystems for carbon cycling and storage, hydrological regulation, and unique biodiversity. There is a diversity of tropical peatland types globally, but tropical peat-forming ecosystems are typically forested without the Sphagnum groundcover that is often characteristic of high-latitude peatlands. Here, we report on a unique tropical peatland situated in Belize that challenges our understanding of both tropical and extra-tropical peatlands owing to the presence of Sphagnum in the undergrowth.

Climate and water-table levels regulate peat accumulation rates across Europe.

Background: Peatlands are globally-important carbon sinks at risk of degradation from climate change and direct human impacts, including drainage and burning. Peat accumulates when there is a positive mass balance between plant productivity inputs and litter/peat decomposition losses. However, the factors influencing the rate of peat accumulation over time are still poorly understood.

Synchronizing Pu fallout and inorganic fly ash particles record in Northern Hemisphere peatlands.

This study examines two critical markers of anthropogenic activity - plutonium (Pu) and inorganic fly ash particles, specifically spheroidal aluminosilicates (SAPs) and mullite - to evaluate their patterns of distribution across the Northern Hemisphere in 10 peat profiles. The global Pu fallout record is synchronous within the time uncertainties but shows differences in maximum activity concentration and calculated inventories. Higher inventories were recorded in Iceland, at Śnieżka and the Izery Mountains in Poland, as well as in Tomsk, Siberia, Russia (88.

Investigating the impact of peatland degradation: A lipid biomarker analysis.

Lipids, such as aliphatics, phenolics, and carboxylic acids, are key biomarkers for analyzing peat composition, decomposition, and microbial activity. This study provides a comparative analysis of lipid biomarkers from natural, extracted, degraded, and restored bog sites in Germany, Poland, and Austria. We investigate samples from various depths, assessing how effectively these biomarkers reflect environmental conditions and restoration success.

Strengthening potential of recent peat dating.

This study concerned high-resolution age reconstructions of modern organic deposits collected from peatlands distributed in Central Europe. The main focus was on Pb radioisotope as a fundamental geochronometer along with C and Pu radioisotopes used for dating verification. In addition to simple classical models such as CF/CS or CF, the new approach formulated upon the Plum method was implemented.

Developing a European aquatic macrophyte transfer function for reconstructing past lake-water chemistry.

Quantitative paleoecological reconstructions using biological proxies, such as diatoms, Cladocera, and chironomids, have revolutionized paleolimnology and have greatly contributed to the understanding of the past local and regional environmental changes, as well as to nature conservation. While macrophytes are good ecological indicators, they have rarely been used to reconstruct past lake-water chemistry. The present study investigates which environmental variable best explains aquatic plant community composition in Finnish, Polish, and Swedish lakes for its further use in quantitative paleoenvironmental reconstructions.

Tropical peat composition may provide a negative feedback on fire occurrence and severity.

Loss of peat through increased burning will have major impacts on the global carbon cycle. In a normal hydrological state, the risk of fire propagation is largely controlled by peat bulk density and moisture content. However, where humans have interfered with the moisture status of peat either via drainage, or indirectly via climate change, we hypothesise that its botanical composition will become important to flammability, such that peats from different latitudes might have different compositionally-driven susceptibility to ignition.

The decline of tufa deposition in an alkaline fen ecosystem in East-Central Europe and its impact on biotic assemblages: Insights from monitoring and paleoecological data.

Protection and restoration of the CaCO depositing alkaline fens require an in-depth understanding of these unique and declining ecosystems. The present study investigates the development of the formerly heavy tufa depositing alkaline fen in East-Central Europe after CaCO precipitation markedly declined ca. 5400 cal yr BP.

Anthropocene history of rich fen acidification in W Poland - Causes and indicators of change.

In the time of the global climate crisis, it is vital to protect and restore peatlands to maintain their functioning as carbon sinks. Otherwise, their transformations may trigger a shift to a carbon source state and further contribute to global warming. In this study, we focused on eutrophication, which resulted in the transition from rich fen to poor fen conditions on the Kazanie fen (central Greater Poland, western Poland Central Europe).

Ultrafine multi-metal (Zn, Cd, Pb) sulfide aggregates formation in periodically water-logged organic soil.

This study investigates authigenic metal (Zn, Cd, and Pb) sulfides formed in the upper (4-20 cm) layer of severely degraded soil close to ZnPb smelter in CE Europe (southern Poland). The soil layer is circumneutral (pH 6.0-6.

Plant succession and geochemical indices in immature peatlands in the Changbai Mountains, northeastern region of China: Implications for climate change and peatland development.

Peatlands cover a small portion of the Earth's land surface but hold ~30% of soil carbon (C) globally. However, few studies have focused on the early stage of peatland development, which is a key stage in the initial C sink function of peatlands. An immature peatland is vulnerable to changes in environmental conditions, e.

How Joannites' economy eradicated primeval forest and created anthroecosystems in medieval Central Europe.

During European states' development, various past societies utilized natural resources, but their impact was not uniformly spatially and temporally distributed. Considerable changes resulted in landscape fragmentation, especially during the Middle Ages. Changes in state advances that affected the local economy significantly drove trajectories of ecosystems' development.

Author Correction: Holocene centennial to millennial shifts in North-Atlantic storminess and ocean dynamics.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Plant communities control long term carbon accumulation and biogeochemical gradients in a Patagonian bog.

Peat carbon accumulation is controlled by both large scale factors, such as climate and hydrological setting, and small scale factors, such as microtopography and plant community. These small scale factors commonly vary within peatlands and can cause variation in biogeochemical traits and carbon accumulation within the same site. To understand these within-site variations, we investigated long term carbon accumulation, peat decomposition, biogeochemistry of pore water and plant macrofossils along a transect in an ombrotrophic bog in southern Patagonia.

Unveiling tipping points in long-term ecological records from Sphagnum-dominated peatlands.

Unveiling past tipping points is a prerequisite for a better understanding of how individual species and entire ecosystems will respond to future climate change. Such knowledge is key for the implementation of biodiversity conservation. We identify the relationships between peatland vegetation and hydrological conditions over the past 2000 years using plant macrofossils, testate amoebae-based quantitative hydrological reconstructions and Sphagnum-moss functional traits from seven Polish peatland records.

Holocene centennial to millennial shifts in North-Atlantic storminess and ocean dynamics.

The forcing mechanisms responsible for centennial to millennial variability of mid-latitude storminess are still poorly understood. On decadal scales, the present-day geographic variability of North-Atlantic storminess responds to latitudinal shifts of the North-Atlantic westerly wind-belt under the prime control of the North-Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). An equivalent mechanism operating at centennial to millennial time scales during the Holocene is still to be ascertained, especially owing to the lack of high-resolution and continuous records of past-storminess extending far enough in time.

Ecosystem state shifts during long-term development of an Amazonian peatland.

The most carbon (C)-dense ecosystems of Amazonia are areas characterized by the presence of peatlands. However, Amazonian peatland ecosystems are poorly understood and are threatened by human activities. Here, we present an investigation into long-term ecohydrological controls on C accumulation in an Amazonian peat dome.

A novel testate amoebae trait-based approach to infer environmental disturbance in Sphagnum peatlands.

Species' functional traits are closely related to ecosystem processes through evolutionary adaptation, and are thus directly connected to environmental changes. Species' traits are not commonly used in palaeoecology, even though they offer powerful advantages in understanding the impact of environmental disturbances in a mechanistic way over time. Here we show that functional traits of testate amoebae (TA), a common group of palaeoecological indicators, can serve as an early warning signal of ecosystem disturbance and help determine thresholds of ecosystem resilience to disturbances in peatlands.

Abrupt ecological changes in the last 800 years inferred from a mountainous bog using testate amoebae traits and multi-proxy data.

Mountainous peatlands of Western Sudetes are considered a unique habitat in Central Europe. The region contains one of the largest raised bog complexes in temperate Europe and is thus of great importance for biodiversity conservation. In this first high-resolution study from this region we use long-term ecological data to assess how these mountain wetland ecosystems responded to anthropogenic impacts and climate change.