Variation in the C/N-Quotient of Peat in Relation to Decomposition Rate and Age Determination with 210 Pb

Malmer, Nils; Holm, E.

doi:10.2307/3544766

Cited by 139 publications

(105 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The high C:N ratios determined for Sifton Bog flora are similar to values reported for other peatlands (~26 to 150; Malmer and Holm, 1984;Damman, 1988;Verhoeven et al, 1990;Hayati and Proctor, 1991;Schindler and Bayley, 1993;Bartsch and Schwintzer, 1994). The low abundance of N in bog plants is consistent with limited nutrient inputs to ombrotrophic environments (Vitousek and Howarth, 1991), albeit ombrotrophic conditions in bogs do not necessary coincide with oligotrophy (Bridgham et al, 1996(Bridgham et al, , 1998.…”

Section: Florasupporting

confidence: 70%

Carbon-isotope ratios and carbon, nitrogen and sulfur abundances in flora and soil organic matter from a temperate-zone bog and marsh.

Hornibrook¹,

Longstaffe²,

Fyfe³

et al. 2000

Geochem. J.

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Section: Florasupporting

confidence: 70%

Carbon-isotope ratios and carbon, nitrogen and sulfur abundances in flora and soil organic matter from a temperate-zone bog and marsh.

Hornibrook¹,

Longstaffe²,

Fyfe³

et al. 2000

Geochem. J.

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“…In the case of P a consistent pattern is observed, with enrichment in the aerobic surface layer (acrotelm) containing living vegetation: typically the upper 20-40 cm in temperate peatlands, extending to 2 m depth in tropical settings, and has been interpreted as evidence of biological P recycling (Damman, 1978;Craft and Richardson, 1993;Weiss et al, 2002;Wang et al, 2015). In the case of N, changes in concentration through the peat profile are also observed (Malmer and Holm, 1984;Craft and Richardson, 1993;Kuhry and Vitt, 1996;Malmer and Wallén, 2004;Gorham and Janssens, 2005;Wang et al, 2015), but the direction of change varies between sites, such that generalisation is uncertain. Furthermore, there is conflicting evidence about the possible role of recent (20th Century) anthropogenically-driven atmospheric nutrient enrichment (Galloway et al, 2004;Vitousek et al, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…Malmer (1988) observed a latitudinal gradient of bog surface N concentrations that reflected the deposition rates across Sweden and Norway (Malmer, 1988), while Gorham and Janssens (2005) found no recent increase at sites across North America despite high N deposition (Turunen et al, 2004). Where observed, increases in N concentration with depth have been attributed primarily to preferential decay and loss of C during progressive decomposition of the plant-derived organic matter (Malmer and Holm, 1984;Craft and Richardson, 1993;Kuhry and Vitt, 1996;Malmer and Wallén, 2004;Wang et al, 2015). That the extent of decay, varying as it does with bog wetness (Aaby and Tauber, 1975), is a factor in governing the relative concentrations of N and C, does not preclude alternative processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Despite the apparent role of these nutrients in controlling both bog functioning and C burial, limited attention has been paid to investigating the patterns of, and controls over, their long-term accumulation, cycling and stoichiometry in ombrotrophic peatlands. Although consideration has been given to the C:N ratio as an indicator of peat decay (Malmer and Holm, 1984), interpreted in terms of changing hydrological conditions (Malmer and Wallén, 2004;Silamiķele et al, 2010), few studies have considered C, N and P in combination. Published case studies that do consider all three nutrients have examined peatlands in North America (Gorham and Janssens, 2005;Wang et al, 2015Wang et al, , 2014, tropical settings (Rwanda: Pajunen, 1997;Indonesia: Weiss et al, 2002) and Patagonia (Knorr et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term macronutrient stoichiometry of UK ombrotrophic peatlands

Schillereff

Boyle

Toberman

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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• C, N and P concentrations and longterm burial rates in UK peat are of similar magnitude to published values elsewhere.• The long-term burial flux in UK peat of P is broadly consistent with atmospheric deposition rates; N burial exceeds atmospheric deposition, consistent with substantial N fixation by peat bogs.• N and P concentrations in peat are strongly associated in both UK and sites elsewhere in the world, consistent with a key role for P in biological fixation of N and C. In this paper we report new data on peat carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) concentrations and accumulation rates for 15 sites in the UK. Concentrations of C, N and P measured in peat from five ombrotrophic blanket mires, spanning 4000-10,000 years to present were combined with existing nutrient data from ten Scottish ombrotrophic peat bogs to provide the first UK perspective on millennial scale macronutrient concentrations in ombrotrophic peats. Long-term average C, N and P concentrations (0-1.25 m) for the UK are 54.8, 1.56 and 0.039 wt%, of similar magnitude to the few published comparable sites worldwide. The uppermost peat (0-0.2 m) is enriched in P and N (51.0, 1.86, and 0.070 wt%) relative to the deeper peat (0.5-1.25 m, 56.3, 1.39, and 0.027 wt%). Long-term average (whole core) accumulation rates of C, N and P are 25.3 ± 2.2 gC m −2 year −1 (mean ± SE), 0.70 ± 0.09 gN m −2 year −1 and 0.018 ± 0.004 gP m −2 year −1 , again similar to values reported elsewhere in the world. The two most significant findings are: 1) that a regression model of N concentration on P concentration and mean annual precipitation, based on global meta data for surface peat samples, can explain 54% of variance in N concentration in these UK peat profiles; and 2) budget calculations for the UK peat G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Contents lists available at ScienceDirectScience of the Total Environment j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / s c i t o t e n v cores yield an estimate for long-term average N-fixation of 0.8 g m −2 year −1 . Our UK results, and comparison with others sites, corroborate published estimates of N storage in northern boreal peatlands through the Holocene as ranging between 8 and 15 Pg N. However, the observed correlation of N% with both mean annual precipitation and P concentration allows a potential bias in global estimates that do not take this into account. The peat sampling data set has been deposited at the NERC Data Centre (Toberman et al., 2016).

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“…On the other hand, both fresh plant residues and undisturbed peat usually have high C / N ratios (Loisel et al, 2012). When peat becomes exposed to oxic conditions, mineralization seems to lead to relative enrichment of N, explaining why decreased C / N ratios are found in organic topsoils compared to undrained peat layers or bottom layers of drained organic soils (Malmer and Holm, 1984;Kuhry and Vitt, 1996;Krueger et al, 2015). While undisturbed organic soils have a low bulk density, drainage leads to subsidence processes and increasing bulk densities in the topsoils (Rogiers et al, 2008;Leifeld et al, 2011a, b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peat decomposability in managed organic soils in relation to land use, organic matter composition and temperature

et al. 2018

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Abstract. Organic soils comprise a large yet fragile carbon (C) store in the global C cycle. Drainage, necessary for agriculture and forestry, triggers rapid decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM), typically increasing in the order forest < grassland < cropland. However, there is also large variation in decomposition due to differences in hydrological conditions, climate and specific management. Here we studied the role of SOM composition on peat decomposability in a variety of differently managed drained organic soils. We collected a total of 560 samples from 21 organic cropland, grassland and forest soils in Switzerland, monitored their CO 2 emission rates in lab incubation experiments over 6 months at two temperatures (10 and 20 • C) and related them to various soil characteristics, including bulk density, pH, soil organic carbon (SOC) content and elemental ratios (C / N, H / C and O / C). CO 2 release ranged from 6 to 195 mg CO 2 -C g −1 SOC at 10 • C and from 12 to 423 mg g −1 at 20 • C. This variation occurring under controlled conditions suggests that besides soil water regime, weather and management, SOM composition may be an underestimated factor that determines CO 2 fluxes measured in field experiments. However, correlations between the investigated chemical SOM characteristics and CO 2 emissions were weak. The latter also did not show a dependence on land-use type, although peat under forest was decomposed the least. High CO 2 emissions in some topsoils were probably related to the accrual of labile crop residues. A comparison with published CO 2 rates from incubated mineral soils indicated no difference in SOM decomposability between these soil classes, suggesting that accumulation of recent, labile plant materials that presumably account for most of the evolved CO 2 is not systematically different between mineral and organic soils. In our data set, temperature sensitivity of decomposition (Q 10 on average 2.57 ± 0.05) was the same for all land uses but lowest below 60 cm in croplands and grasslands. This, in turn, indicates a relative accumulation of recalcitrant peat in topsoils.

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Variation in the C/N-Quotient of Peat in Relation to Decomposition Rate and Age Determination with 210 Pb

Cited by 139 publications

References 16 publications

Carbon-isotope ratios and carbon, nitrogen and sulfur abundances in flora and soil organic matter from a temperate-zone bog and marsh.

Carbon-isotope ratios and carbon, nitrogen and sulfur abundances in flora and soil organic matter from a temperate-zone bog and marsh.

Long-term macronutrient stoichiometry of UK ombrotrophic peatlands

Peat decomposability in managed organic soils in relation to land use, organic matter composition and temperature

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