Development and Refinement of Proxy-Climate Indicators from Peats
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Open Archive Toulouse Archive Ouverte Open Archive TOULOUSE Archive Ouverte ( OATAO ) OATAO is an open access repository that collects the work of Toulouse researchers an d makes it freely available over the web where possible. This is an author-deposited version published in : http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/ Eprints ID : 11364 To link to this article : DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.039 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.039 To cite this version Chambers, Frank M. and Booth, Robert K. and De Vleeschouwer, François and Lamentowicz, Mariusz and Le Roux, Gaël and Mauquoy, Dmitri and Nichols, Jonathan E. and van Geel, Bas Development and refinement of proxy-climate indicators from peats. (2012) Quaternary International, vol. 268 . pp. 21-33. ISSN 1040-6182 Any correspondance concerning this service should be sent to the repository administrator: [email protected] Development and re finement of proxy-climate indicators from peats Frank M. Chambers a,*, Robert K. Booth b, Francois De Vleeschouwer c,1, Mariusz Lamentowicz d, Gael Le Roux e, Dmitri Mauquoy f, Jonathan E. Nichols g, Bas van Geel h a Centre for Environmental Change and Quaternary Research, Department of Natural and Social Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Francis Close Hall, Swindon Rd, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ, UK b Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Lehigh University, 31 Williams Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA c Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden d Department of Biogeography and Palaeoecology, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, Dzie˛gielowa 27, PL-61-680 Pozna n, Poland e EcoLab CNRS-Université de Toulouse, Campus Ensat, Avenue de l ’Agrobiopole, BP 32607, Auzeville tolosane, 31326 Castanet-Tolosan, France f School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, UK g NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA h Department of Paleoecology and Landscape Ecology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands abstract Peat, especially from acidic mires (bogs), is a natural archive of past environmental change. Recon- structions of past climate from bogs commenced in the 19th Century through examination of visible peat stratigraphy, and later formed the basis for a postglacial climatic scheme widely used in Northwest Europe. Nevertheless, misconceptions as to how bogs grow led to a 50-year lacuna in peat-climate study, before the concept of ‘cyclic regeneration ’ in bogs was refuted. In recent decades, research using proxy- climate indicators from bogs has burgeoned. A range of proxies for past hydrological change has been developed, as well as use of pollen, bog oaks and pines and other data to reconstruct past temperatures. Most of this proxy-climate research has been carried out in Northern Europe, but peat-based research in parts of Asia and North America has increased, particularly during the last decade, while research has also been conducted in Australia, New Zealand and South America. This paper reviews developments in proxy-climate reconstructions from peatlands; chronicles use of a range of palaeo-proxies such as visible peat stratigraphy, plant macrofossils, peat humi fication, testate amoebae and non-pollen palynomorphs; and explains the use of wiggle-match radiocarbon dating and relationship to climate shifts. It details other techniques being used increasingly, such as biomarkers, stable-isotopes, inorganic geochemistry and estimation of dust flux; and points to new proxies under development. Although explicit protocols have been developed recently for research on ombrotrophic mires, it must be recognised that not all proxies and techniques have universal applicability, owing to differences in species assemblages, mire formation, topographic controls, and geochemical characteristics. 1. Introduction 1876; Sernander, 1908 ), whose terminology has been used in north-west Europe for a century. However, a prevailing miscon- The use of peat, especially from acidic mires (bogs), as an archive ception as to how bogs grow delayed their detailed exploitation as for climatic and environmental change is long-standing. There was climatic archives until the 1970s (see Backéus, 1990 ), when Aaby a notable advance near the close of the 19th century: peat stra- (1976) reported cyclic, sub-Milankovitch-scale climate changes tigraphy in Scandinavia provided the first climatostratigraphic within the late Holocene. His interpretation was based on colori- division of the Holocene dthe Blytt eSernander scheme ( Blytt, metric peat humi fication and rhizopoda (testate amoebae) data from Danish peat cores ( Aaby and Tauber, 1975 ). Based on studies at Bolton Fell Moss, northern England, Barber (1981) refuted the internal (autogenic) cyclic regeneration hypothesis dthe prevailing * Corresponding author. paradigm that had inhibited climate research on bogs dand instead E-mail address: [email protected] (F.M. Chambers). 1 Present address: EcoLab CNRS-Université de Toulouse, Campus Ensat, Avenue proposed that raised mires provided a continuous record of past de l ’Agrobiopole, BP 32607, Auzeville tolosane, 31326, Castanet-Tolosan, France. hydroclimatic change, as they were ‘directly coupled ’ to the atmosphere. Barber et al. (1994) then showed how plant macro- Table 1 fossil analysis could be used to provide a semi-quantiative record of Examples of proxy-climate indicators and dating techniques for Late-Quaternary peat (modi fied and adapted from Chambers, in press ). past climate variability. Though omitted as a climate archive from the Bradley (1999) compendium, studies on bogs in north-west and Established techniques west-central Europe have gained greater prominence during the Visible peat stratigraphy Layering and growth ‘recurrence surfaces ’ last decade ( Chambers and Charman, 2004; Chambers et al., 2010 ). Wood-rich layers A wide array of climate proxies has been developed, involving an Trees in bogs (for dendroclimatology) increasing number of specialists from a range of disciplines ( de Jong Pollen analysis et al., 2010 ). Pollen concentrations Temperature reconstruction from indicator taxa Non-pollen microfossils 1.1. Geographical scope Plant macrofossil analysis Quadrat leaf-count macrofossil analysis (QLCMA) Most of the peatland proxy-climate research has been carried Stomatal density in leaves fi out in Northern Europe, where peat-climate research has concen- Peat humi cation Testate amoebae trated principally on two mire types: blanket mires (mainly in Biomarkers western Ireland and the UK uplands, but also western Norway), and Lipids raised mires (located especially in central Ireland; lowlands in parts n-alkanes of the north, west and east of Britain; Denmark; northern Germany; 5- n-Alkylresorcinols Southern Sweden; Estonia; southern Finland; Poland; Czech Stable isotopes D/H Republic). However, peat-based palaeoclimate research has 13 C increased in parts of Asia, notably in China ( Hong et al., 2000, 2001; 18 O/ 16 O Xu et al., 2006; Seki et al., 2009 ) and Indonesia ( Weiss et al., 2002 ), Dust flux and in North America ( Booth et al., 2006; Hughes et al., 2006; Loss on ignition Inorganic geochemistry Booth, 2010; Loisel et al., 2010 ), particularly during the last Elemental, e.g. Hg decade, while research has also been conducted in Australia Near Infra-red spectroscopy (NIRS) and related techniques (Kylander et al., 2007; Muller et al., 2008 ), New Zealand Magnetic susceptibility (Wilmshurst et al., 2002 ) and South America ( van Geel et al., 2000; Charcoal Mauquoy et al., 2004a; Chambers et al., 2007a ). Fire frequency (climate-related) Beetles, bugs and mites Chironomids a 1.2. Advantages of ombrotrophic mires for palaeoclimate Diatoms a reconstruction New/potential ones UV absorbing substances Ombrotrophic mires have accumulated peat during the mid- Species-speci fic, compound speci fic, stable-isotope biomarkers elate Holocene epoch, with some in temperate regions from the GDGTs: glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers early Holocene, or for longer in the case of tropical peatlands. Isoprenoid [lipids in] Archaea Branched bacteria Ombrotrophic mires are fed by atmospheric inputs (aerosols, rain, Nd isotope analysis etc.), and so, like ice cores, can therefore provide past environ- Established Dating techniques mental records of the atmosphere. They have three main advan- Relative pollen dating tages compared to other environmental archives: (i) a widespread Use of 14 C distribution around the globe, providing better accessibility, global conventional radiocarbon dating distribution and ease of sampling (e.g. compared to ice cores); (ii) ‘Bomb ’ carbon because peat almost exclusively constitutes autochthonous organic wiggle-match dating d14 C and relationship to climate shifts matter, they can be dated using radiocarbon techniques, leading to 210 Pb dating high-resolution and low-uncertainty chronologies (e.g. compared 241 Am and 137 Cs to non-varved lake sediments); and (iii) a largely atmospheric Sphagnum growth signal, as they are isolated from groundwater (e.g. compared to lake Drosera growth and coastal sediments). Therefore, ombrotrophic mires provide Uranium/Thorium dating (for late-Pleistocene peat) Tephrochronology a valuable archive to investigate climate eenvironment relation-