TY - JOUR
T1 - Climate and water-table levels regulate peat accumulation rates across Europe
AU - Swindles, Graeme T.
AU - Mullan, Donal J.
AU - Brannigan, Neil T.
AU - Fewster, Richard E.
AU - Sim, Thomas G.
AU - Gallego-Sala, Angela
AU - Blaauw, Maarten
AU - Lamentowicz, Mariusz
AU - Jassey, Vincent E.J.
AU - Marcisz, Katarzyna
AU - Green, Sophie M.
AU - Roland, Thomas P.
AU - Loisel, Julie
AU - Amesbury, Matthew J.
AU - Blundell, Antony
AU - Chambers, Frank M.
AU - Charman, Dan J.
AU - Evans, Callum R.C.
AU - Feurdean, Angelica
AU - Galloway, Jennifer M.
AU - Gałka, Mariusz
AU - Karofeld, Edgar
AU - Keaveney, Evelyn M.
AU - Korhola, Atte
AU - Lamentowicz, Łukasz
AU - Langdon, Peter
AU - Mauquoy, Dmitri
AU - McKeown, Michelle M.
AU - Mitchell, Edward A. D.
AU - Plunkett, Gill
AU - Roe, Helen M.
AU - Turner, T. Edward
AU - Sillasoo, Ülle
AU - Väliranta, Minna
AU - van der Linden, Marjolein
AU - Warner, Barry
A2 - Van Stan II,, John Toland
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Swindles et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2025/7/23
Y1 - 2025/7/23
N2 - 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. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examine apparent peat accumulation rates (aPAR) during the last two millennia from 28 well-dated, intact European peatlands and find a range of between 0.005 and 0.448 cm yr-1 (mean = 0.118 cm yr-1). Our work provides important context for the commonplace assertion that European peatlands accumulate at ~0.1 cm per year. The highest aPAR values are found in the Scandinavian and Baltic regions, in contrast to Britain, Ireland, and Continental Europe. We find that summer temperature is a significant climatic control on aPAR across our European sites. Furthermore, a significant relationship is observed between aPAR and water-table depth (reconstructed from testate-amoeba subfossils), suggesting that higher aPAR levels are often associated with wetter conditions. We also note that the highest values of aPAR are found when the water table is within 5–10 cm of the peatland surface. aPAR is generally low when water table depths are < 0 cm (standing water) or > 25 cm, which may relate to a decrease in plant productivity and increased decomposition losses, respectively. Model fitting indicates that the optimal water table depth (WTD) for maximum aPAR is ~10 cm. Conclusions/Significance: Our study suggests that, in some European peatlands, higher summer temperatures may enhance growth rates, but only if a sufficiently high water table is maintained. In addition, our findings corroborate contemporary observational and experimental studies that have suggested an average water-table depth of ~10 cm is optimal to enable rapid peat growth and therefore carbon sequestration in the long term. This has important implications for peatland restoration and rewetting strategies, in global efforts to mitigate climate change.
AB - 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. Methodology/Principal Findings: We examine apparent peat accumulation rates (aPAR) during the last two millennia from 28 well-dated, intact European peatlands and find a range of between 0.005 and 0.448 cm yr-1 (mean = 0.118 cm yr-1). Our work provides important context for the commonplace assertion that European peatlands accumulate at ~0.1 cm per year. The highest aPAR values are found in the Scandinavian and Baltic regions, in contrast to Britain, Ireland, and Continental Europe. We find that summer temperature is a significant climatic control on aPAR across our European sites. Furthermore, a significant relationship is observed between aPAR and water-table depth (reconstructed from testate-amoeba subfossils), suggesting that higher aPAR levels are often associated with wetter conditions. We also note that the highest values of aPAR are found when the water table is within 5–10 cm of the peatland surface. aPAR is generally low when water table depths are < 0 cm (standing water) or > 25 cm, which may relate to a decrease in plant productivity and increased decomposition losses, respectively. Model fitting indicates that the optimal water table depth (WTD) for maximum aPAR is ~10 cm. Conclusions/Significance: Our study suggests that, in some European peatlands, higher summer temperatures may enhance growth rates, but only if a sufficiently high water table is maintained. In addition, our findings corroborate contemporary observational and experimental studies that have suggested an average water-table depth of ~10 cm is optimal to enable rapid peat growth and therefore carbon sequestration in the long term. This has important implications for peatland restoration and rewetting strategies, in global efforts to mitigate climate change.
KW - Europe
KW - Soil/chemistry
KW - Climate
KW - Climate Change
KW - Groundwater
KW - Temperature
KW - Soil
KW - Soil - chemistry
UR - https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/e2c233bc-0a36-4cf9-be12-8d370a3e451e
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105011540072
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0327422
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0327422
M3 - Article
C2 - 40700350
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 20
SP - 1
EP - 16
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
IS - 7
M1 - e0327422
ER -
