Global peatland initiation driven by regionally asynchronous warming

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1717838115
• Publication Date: 2018-04-17T15:00:29Z
• Authors: Paul J. Morris; Graeme T. Swindles; Paul J. Valdes; Ruza F. Ivanovic; Lauren J. Gregoire; Mark W. Smith; Lev Tarasov; Alan M. Haywood; Karen L. Bacon
• Keywords: Deglaciation; 570; 550; Bioclimate; 15. Life on land; GCM; Global Warming; Models, Biological; 01 natural sciences; Carbon; Soil; Biogeography; /dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action; 13. Climate action; Wetlands; /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1000; SDG 13 - Climate Action; Basal date catalog; General; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Significance Peatlands are organic-rich wetlands that have acted as globally important carbon sinks since the Last Glacial Maximum. However, drivers of peat initiation poorly understood. Using a catalog radiocarbon dates combined with simulations past climates, we demonstrate in deglaciated landscapes North America, northern Europe, and Patagonia was driven primarily by warming growing seasons rather than any increase effective precipitation. In Western Siberia, which not glaciated, climatic wetting required to convert existing ecosystems into peatlands. Our findings explain genesis one world’s most ecosystem types its potentially fragile, distributed store, implications for understanding potential changes peatland distribution response future warming.