Vulnerability of the Ancient Peat Plateaus in Western Siberia

Abstract

Based on the data of the plant macrofossil and palynological composition of the peat deposits, the evolution and current state of polygonal peatlands were analyzed at the southern limit of continuous permafrost in the Pur-Taz interfluve. Paleoreconstruction shows that peat accumulation began in the Early Holocene, about 9814 cal. year BP, in the Late Pre-Boreal (PB-2), at a rate of 1 to 1.5 mm year−1. Intensive peat accumulation continued in the Boreal and early Atlantic. The geocryological complex of polygonal peatlands has remained a stable bog system despite the predicted warming and increasing humidity. However, a rather rapid upper permafrost degradation and irreversible changes in the bog systems of polygonal peatlands occur with anthropogenic disturbances, in particular, a change in the natural hydrological regime under construction of linear objects.

Microbial Community Structure in Ancient European Arctic Peatlands

“…The Eastern European permafrost peatlands have a more acidic pH (pH H2O = 4.5 ± 0.5 and pH KCl = 3.6 ± 0.4) in comparison with the pH levels found in the Western Siberian peat plateaus (4.7 ± 0.5 and 3.7 ± 0.4, respectively) [ 29 ]. The pH values thus increase down the peat strata.…”

“…The composition heterogeneity and peat organic matter properties in the acrotelm and catotelm of peat strata were shown in our previous studies [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], which denoted the various paleogeographic conditions throughout their evolution [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. The purpose of this study is to fill the gaps in our previous research now that structural features have been determined and an assessment of the profile distribution of microorganisms has been undertaken, the latter of which found correlations with the amino acid content in the northern permafrost peatlands at the southern cryolithozone limit.…”

Organic carbon, and major and trace elements reside in labile low-molecular form in the ground ice of permafrost peatlands: a case study of colloids in peat ice of Western Siberia

“…At the northernmost key site (Tazovsky), the peat accumulated from the very beginning under a permafrost environment, 72,73 and 80 to 90% of peat was formed over the past 5500 years. 74 This was accompanied by multiple cycles of freezing and thawing across the upper part of the peat layer. In the course of peat thickness growth, the peat layers formerly subjected to thawing were preserved in the permafrost.…”

Late Quaternary Dynamics of Landscape and Climate in the North of the West Siberian Plain Revealed by Paleoecological Studies of Peat and Lake Sediments

“…However, landscapes forested by spruce and birch (Betula sect. Albae) have been reconstructed using pollen data from a site in the Pur-Taz interfluve near the arctic circle [66] for the period c. 9800 cal. a BP.…”