Carbon Accumulation in Peatland

Abstract

(1) Models of peat accumulation are developed that include constant, linear and quadratic decay of dry mass remaining. Profiles of dry bulk density of 795 peatlands distributed over Finland are used to infer cumulative carbon for each site. These values and basal ages are themselves used to infer rates of growth and decay of the peat. (2) A method, 'function parameter fitting' (FPF), is devised to estimate parameter values in non-linear functions when there are uncertainties in both variables, as there are in cumulative carbon and age. Where the data are highly variable then results with FPF are substantially different from those used hitherto that assume uncertainty in only the dependent variable. (3) For five regions in Finland and in Boreal Canada the inferred rate of addition, p* [M L -2 T -1 ], is related to degree-days above zero, and decay, a* [T -1 ] is related logarithmically to mean annual temperature. The present day rate of accumulation of carbon in northern peatlands is about 5.6 Tmol yr -1 or, as dry mass, 0.07 Gt yr -1 . (4) There are difficulties in the interpretation of LARCA (=LORCA=long term average rate of carbon accumulation). Understanding of peatland dynamics may result from the use of intrinsic models allowing decay: it is unlikely to emerge from the exotic models in common use.