Palaeoecology of testate amoebae in a tropical peatland

Abstract

Please cite this article as: Swindles, G.T., Lamentowicz, M., Reczuga, M., Galloway, J.M.,Palaeoecology of testate amoebae in a tropical peatland, European Journal of Protistology (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. ejop.2015.10.002 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 2 Abstract 21We present the first detailed analysis of subfossil testate amoebae from a tropical 22 peatland. Testate amoebae were analysed from a 4-m peat core from western Amazonia 23 (Peru) and a transfer function developed from the site was applied to reconstruct changes in 24 water table over the past ca. 8,000 years. Testate amoebae were in very low abundance in the 25 core, especially in the lower 125 cm, due to a combination of poor preservation and 26 obscuration by other organic matter. A modified preparation method enabled at least 50 27 testate amoebae to be counted in each core sample. The most abundant taxa preserved include 28

Ecosystem state shifts during long‐term development of an Amazonian peatland

“…Drought phase B potentially drove the conversion of the forest swamp into an ombrotrophic peat dome, again by stimulating productivity in a previously seasonally flooded landscape. The resumption of peat accumulation after drought phase C also adds further weight to the growing body of evidence for the resilience of peatland ecosystems to recover from severe disturbances (e.g., Morris, Baird, Young, & Swindles, ; Swindles, Lamentowicz et al., ; Swindles, Morris et al., ; Waddington et al., ). The shift to ombrotrophic peat dome at ca.…”

“…The most common testate amoebae in the profile include Hyalosphenia subflava , Trigonopyxis arcula , Phryganella acropodia and Centropyxis aculeata . Preservation down‐core is variable and concentrations of testate amoebae in general were very low (see Swindles, Lamentowicz et al., ; Swindles, Morris et al., ). The horizon 50–60 cm (peat dome phase) was barren of testate amoebae.…”

“…Previous research in the PMFB has included preliminary determinations of peat C content, physical properties, and geochemistry (Lähteenoja & Page, ; Lähteenoja, Ruokolainen, Schulman, & Alvarez, ; Lähteenoja, Ruokolainen, Schulman, & Oinonen, ; Lähteenoja et al., ), remote sensing of peatland ecosystems (Draper et al., ), and palynological studies (Kelly et al., ; Roucoux et al., ). There have also been studies of the ecology and palaeoecology of testate amoebae (Reczuga, Swindles, Grewling, & Lamentowicz, ; Swindles et al., ; Swindles, Lamentowicz, Reczuga, & Galloway, ; Swindles, Morris et al., ). Watson, Swindles, Savov, and Bacon () reported the presence of microscopic tephra (volcanic ash) in a peat core, tentatively attributed to a source in the Ecuadorian Eastern Cordillera.…”

Peatland forests are the least diverse tree communities documented in Amazonia, but contribute to high regional beta‐diversity

“…Therefore, the lack of endemism observed in the Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin peatlands is curious, particularly given the apparently high numbers of endemics species reported in other environmentally extreme habitats (e.g. However, unlike in SE Asia, no peats dating to Quaternary glacial periods have yet been identified in the Pastaza-Marañón Foreland Basin (Lähteenoja et al 2009b, Roucoux et al 2013, Swindles et al 2015, Watson et al 2015. One possible explanation for this apparent low endemism is that peatlands are a relatively transient feature on the landscape in this region, and as a result there has been insufficient time for speciation to occur.…”

Testate amoeba records indicate regional 20th‐century lowering of water tables in ombrotrophic peatlands in central‐northern Alberta, Canada

“…Testate amoebae are generally sensitive to peat moisture content and many studies have aimed to reconstruct past water‐table levels in peatlands around the globe, by the use of transfer functions (Amesbury et al., ; van Bellen et al., ; Booth, ; Charman, Blundell, & ACCROTELM Members, ; Lamarre, Magnan, Garneau, & Boucher, ; Lamentowicz & Mitchell, ; Swindles, Lamentowicz, Reczuga, & Galloway, ; Wilmshurst, Wiser, & Charman, ). Nevertheless, a range of environmental variables are known to be related to, and possibly directly affect testate amoebae, including pH (Charman & Warner, ; Lamentowicz & Mitchell, ), dust deposition (Fiałkiewicz‐Kozieł et al., ; Payne, ) and fire occurrence (Marcisz et al., ; Turner & Swindles, ).…”