Vegetation and peat characteristics in the development of lowland restiad peat bogs, North Island, New Zealand

Clarkson, Beverley R.; Schipper, Louis A.; Lehmann, Anthony

doi:10.1672/0277-5212(2004)024[0133:vapcit]2.0.co;2

Cited by 54 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…If the fern thickets at BCR were neither strongly nutrient limited nor early successional, then the dominance of ferns over much of this subtropical, coastal landscape is quite unusual in the context of modern vegetation, in which monocotyledonous angiosperms (typically grasses or sedges) dominate warm-climate wetlands (e.g., Loveless 1959, Gore 1983, Clarkson et al 2004. Fern-dominated fossil floras, on the other hand, have been widely reported from Cretaceous rocks (Rushforth 1971, Harris 1981, Crabtree 1988, Skog and Dilcher 1994, Cantrill 1996, Van Konijnenburg-Van Cittert 2002, Nagalingum and Cantrill 2006, Deng et al 2008.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floral and environmental gradients on a Late Cretaceous landscape

Wing

Strömberg

Hickey

et al. 2012

Ecological Monographs

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Abstract. We describe an in situ fossil flora of Late Cretaceous age (;73 Ma [megaannum or million years]) from Big Cedar Ridge in central Wyoming, USA, which we sampled using a modified line-intercept method to quantify the relative abundances of 122 taxa at 100 sites across 4 km of exposed sedimentary deposits. We also measured three physical variables at each site: paleotopographic level, grain size, and total organic content. Paleoenvironmental conditions and paleofloral composition at Big Cedar Ridge covary strongly and are highly heterogeneous on small spatial scales. The reconstructed vegetation has some similarities with extant topogenous fens, but also important differences. Non-monocot angiosperms were abundant only on wet, mineral substrates that had been disturbed shortly before preservation, consistent with the weedy life histories that are inferred for their Early Cretaceous ancestors. Many non-monocot angiosperms grew in small, dispersed populations, consistent with the hypothesis that they were biotically pollinated. Overall, non-monocot angiosperm abundance was low compared with many modern wetlands. A single species of coryphoid palm was the dominant on moist, stable, moderately organic-rich sites, a pattern seen in some subtropical to tropical wetlands in the present day. Fern thickets at Big Cedar Ridge occupied highly organic, possibly low-nutrient substrates, and were dominated by Dipteridaceae, Gleicheniaceae, Schizaeaceae, and Matoniaceae. The overall high diversity and abundance of pteridophytes is unusual in the context of modern vegetation, regardless of climate zone, and probably represents a late occurrence of pteridophyte-dominated vegetation that was common earlier in the Mesozoic. Plant distributions at Big Cedar Ridge combine aspects of pre-angiosperm and modern vegetation in a way that suggests both niche conservatism and niche evolution on geological time scales.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Floral and environmental gradients on a Late Cretaceous landscape

Wing

Strömberg

Hickey

et al. 2012

Ecological Monographs

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“…Sporadanthus ferrugineus is probably NM on the basis that Restionaceae is generally considered to be a typical non-mycorrhizal family (Tester et al 1987) and a preliminary study of S. ferrugineus roots (n=4) revealed no mycorrhizal associations (BRC, unpublished data). Peat nutrient levels decreased along a bog margin-centre transect, with total N ranging from 1.80 mg cm À3 to 0.15 mg cm À3 and total P, 0.12 mg cm À3 to 0.002 mg cm À3 , at the margin and centre respectively (Schipper et al 1998;Clarkson et al 2004b).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We measured plant d 15 N, N and P content in the dominant woody and herbaceous species across nutrient gradients as previous studies have shown peat total N and total P were the most important nutrients in restiad bog succession (Clarkson et al 2004b). The aim was to determine whether different species responded similarly to N and P gradients within and between bog ecosystems at two independent field sites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foliar 15N natural abundance indicates phosphorus limitation of bog species

Clarkson

Schipper

Moyersoen³

et al. 2005

Oecologia

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Foliar delta15N, %N and %P in the dominant woody and herbaceous species across nutrient gradients in New Zealand restiad (family Restionaceae) raised bogs revealed marked differences in plant delta15N correlations with P. The two heath shrubs, Leptospermum scoparium (Myrtaceae) and Dracophyllum scoparium (Epacridaceae), showed considerable isotopic variation (-2.03 to -15.55 per thousand, and -0.39 to -12.06 per thousand, respectively) across the bogs, with foliar delta15N strongly and positively correlated with P concentrations in foliage and peat, and negatively correlated with foliar N:P ratios. For L. scoparium, the isotopic gradient was not linked to ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fractionation as ECMs occurred only on higher nutrient marginal peats where 15N depletion was least. In strong contrast, restiad species (Empodisma minus Sporadanthus ferrugineus, S. traversii) showed little isotopic variation across the same nutrient gradients. Empodisma minus and S. traversii had delta15N levels consistently around 0 per thousand (means of -0.12 per thousand and +0.15 per thousand respectively), and S. ferrugineus, which co-habited with E. minus, was more depleted (mean -4.97 per thousand). The isotopic differences between heath shrubs and restiads were similar in floristically dissimilar bogs and may be linked to contrasting nutrient demands, acquisition mechanisms, and root morphology. Leptospermum scoparium shrubs on low nutrient peats were stunted, with low tissue P concentrations, and high N:P ratios, suggesting they were P-limited, which was probably exacerbated by markedly reduced mycorrhizal colonizations. The coupling of delta(15)N depletion and %P in heath shrubs suggests that N fractionation is promoted by P limitation. In contrast, the constancy in delta15N of the restiad species through the N and P gradients suggests that these are not suffering from P limitation.

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“…This result is in agreement with Campbell et al (2014), who found large annual NEP for a drainage-impacted New Zealand bog despite having similar peak summertime CO 2 uptake to Northern Hemisphere peatlands. The study was conducted at Moanatuatua, a remnant bog with prevalence of the taller, late successional restiad species, Sporadanthus ferrugineus (giant cane rush, Clarkson et al, 2004) in addition to E. robustum, resulting in greater mid-day and annual GPP than we observed at Kopuatai. However, mean nighttime F CO 2 (Fig.…”

Section: Peatland Net Ecosystem C Balancementioning

confidence: 65%

Southern Hemisphere bog persists as a strong carbon sink during droughts

2017

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Abstract. Peatland ecosystems have been important global carbon sinks throughout the Holocene. Most of the research on peatland carbon budgets and effects of variable weather conditions has been done in Northern Hemisphere Sphagnum-dominated systems. Given their importance in other geographic and climatic regions, a better understanding of peatland carbon dynamics is needed across the spectrum of global peatland types. In New Zealand, much of the historic peatland area has been drained for agriculture but little is known about rates of carbon exchange and storage in unaltered peatland remnants that are dominated by the jointed wire rush, Empodisma robustum. We used eddy covariance to measure ecosystem-scale CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes and a water balance approach to estimate the sub-surface flux of dissolved organic carbon from the largest remaining raised peat bog in New Zealand, Kopuatai bog. The net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) was estimated over four years, which included two drought summers, a relatively wet summer, and a meteorologically average summer. In all measurement years, the bog was a substantial sink for carbon, ranging from 134.7 to 216.9 gC m −2 yr −1 , owing to the large annual net ecosystem production (161.8 to 244.9 gCO 2 -C m −2 yr −1 ). Annual methane fluxes were large relative to most Northern Hemisphere peatlands (14.2 to 21.9 gCH 4 -C m −2 yr −1 ), although summer and autumn emissions were highly sensitive to dry conditions, leading to very predictable seasonality according to water table position. The annual flux of dissolved organic carbon was similar in magnitude to methane emissions but less variable, ranging from 11.7 to 12.8 gC m −2 yr −1 . Dry conditions experienced during late summer droughts led to significant reductions in annual carbon storage, which resulted nearly equally from enhanced ecosystem respiration due to lowered water tables and increased temperatures, and from reduced gross primary production due to vapor pressure deficit-related stresses to the vegetation. However, the net C uptake of Kopuatai bog during drought years was large relative to even the maximum reported NECB from Northern Hemisphere bogs. Furthermore, global warming potential fluxes indicated the bog was a strong sink for greenhouse gases in all years despite the relatively large annual methane emissions. Our results suggest that adaptations of E. robustum to dry conditions lead to a resilient peatland drought response of the NECB.

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Vegetation and peat characteristics in the development of lowland restiad peat bogs, North Island, New Zealand

Cited by 54 publications

References 44 publications

Floral and environmental gradients on a Late Cretaceous landscape

Floral and environmental gradients on a Late Cretaceous landscape

Foliar 15N natural abundance indicates phosphorus limitation of bog species

Southern Hemisphere bog persists as a strong carbon sink during droughts

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