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Articles
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0462-z
1School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. 2School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK. 3Ottawa-Carleton
Geoscience Centre and Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. 4Department of Environment and Geography,
University of York, York, UK. 5Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. 6Environmental Change Research
Unit, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 7Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Monitoring,
Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. 8School of Science and the Environment, Manchester
Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK. 9Centre for Environmental Change and Quaternary Research, School of Natural and Social Sciences, University
of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK. 10Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Frankfurt am Main,
Germany. 11Department of Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. 12Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus,
Denmark. 13Geological Survey of Canada/Commission géologique du Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. 14Department of Geobotany and Plant Ecology,
Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland. 15Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu,
Estonia. 16School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. 17School of Geosciences, The University
of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. 18Department of General Ecology and Hydrobiology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia. 19Manaaki
Whenua–Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand. 20Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
21Jardin Botanique de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland. 22Department of Physical Geography and Landscape Science, Lomonosov Moscow State
University, Moscow, Russia. 23Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia. 24Geological Survey of Sweden, Uppsala, Sweden.
25Vaida Elementary School, Vaida, Estonia. 26Department of Zoology and Ecology, Penza State University, Penza, Russia. 27BIAX Consult, Zaandam, the
Netherlands. 28Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. *e-mail: g.t.swindles@leeds.ac.uk
Peatlands have acted as globally important carbon (C) sinks
since the Last Glacial Maximum1,2 and contain ~20% of the soil
C pool, despite only covering ~3% of the global landmass3,4.
Peatlands accumulate C when the production of plant litter exceeds
losses from microbial decomposition5. The maintenance of a shallow
water table and near-saturated surface conditions are important for
inhibiting C losses from microbial respiration in peatlands6. Several
factors threaten the persistence of peatland ecosystem services:
climate change, peat extraction, drainage, burning and land-use
modification7. Field manipulations8 and modelling studies9 have
indicated that the deepening of peatland water tables leads to
increasing peat oxidation, in turn causing the peat C stock that has
built up over millennia to be decomposed and released to the atmo-
sphere as carbon dioxide, with likely global-scale implications for cli-
mate change8,10. In Europe, peatlands store approximately five times
more C than forests11 and about half of Europe’s total soil organic C12.
These huge C stores deserve an important place in Europe’s climate
mitigation measures and greenhouse gas emissions policies.
Widespread drying of European peatlands in
recent centuries
Graeme T. Swindles 1,2,3*, Paul J. Morris 1, Donal J. Mullan2, Richard J. Payne4, Thomas P. Roland5,
Matthew J. Amesbury 5,6, Mariusz Lamentowicz 7, T. Edward Turner1, Angela Gallego-Sala 5,
Thomas Sim 1, Iestyn D. Barr 8, Maarten Blaauw 2, Antony Blundell1, Frank M. Chambers9,
Dan J. Charman 5, Angelica Feurdean10,11, Jennifer M. Galloway12,13, Mariusz Gałka14,
Sophie M. Green5, Katarzyna Kajukało7, Edgar Karofeld15, Atte Korhola6, Łukasz Lamentowicz7,
Peter Langdon16, Katarzyna Marcisz7, Dmitri Mauquoy17, Yuri A. Mazei18, Michelle M. McKeown19,
Edward A. D. Mitchell 20,21, Elena Novenko22,23, Gill Plunkett 2, Helen M. Roe2, Kristian Schoning24,
Ülle Sillasoo25, Andrey N. Tsyganov 18,26, Marjolein vander Linden27, Minna Väliranta 6
and Barry Warner28
Climate warming and human impacts are thought to be causing peatlands to dry, potentially converting them from sinks to
sources of carbon. However, it is unclear whether the hydrological status of peatlands has moved beyond their natural envelope.
Here we show that European peatlands have undergone substantial, widespread drying during the last ~300 years. We analyse
testate amoeba-derived hydrological reconstructions from 31 peatlands across Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and Continental
Europe to examine changes in peatland surface wetness during the last 2,000 years. We find that 60% of our study sites were
drier during the period 1800–2000
ce
than they have been for the last 600 years, 40% of sites were drier than they have been
for 1,000 years and 24% of sites were drier than they have been for 2,000 years. This marked recent transition in the hydrology
of European peatlands is concurrent with compound pressures including climatic drying, warming and direct human impacts
on peatlands, although these factors vary among regions and individual sites. Our results suggest that the wetness of many
European peatlands may now be moving away from natural baselines. Our findings highlight the need for effective management
and restoration of European peatlands.
NATURE GEOSCIENCE | VOL 12 | NOVEMBER 2019 | 922–928 | www.nature.com/naturegeoscience
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