%0 Research Notes
%T Preliminary estimate of long-term carbon accumulation and loss in 25 boreal peatlands
%A Tolonen, Kimmo
%A Vasander, Harri
%A Damman, Antoni H.
%A Clymo, R. S.
%D 1992
%J Suo - Mires and peat
%V 43
%N 4-5
%U http://suo.fi/article/9721
%X The rate of carbon accumulation (RCA) was studied stratigraphically in individual vertical cores representing 25 mires in Finland, Estonia and Maine, USA. Carbon 14-datings (325 in total) were used for dating long cores encompassing all or most of the Holocene. The apparent long-term RCA (g m-2 a-1) in Finnish raised bogs and fens ranged from 13 to 41 and from 8 to 25, respectively, and in Maine bogs from 20 to 26 and in a single fen 27. Between and within core variations were great. In Finnish mires the true RCA, as derived from Clymo's peat accumulation model for long cores, was usually about 2/3 of the apparent long-term RCA. A change from intensive decay in the surface layers to very slow decay in deeper peat layers was dated to between some 300-500 years ago.

Key words: Climatic change, organic matter, stratigraphy