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Abstract:There is concern that ecosystem services provided by blanket peatlands have come under threat due to increasing degradation. Blanket peatlands are subject to a wide range of drivers of degradation and are topographically variable. As a result, many degradation forms can develop, including those resulting from eroding artificial drainage, incising gullies and areas of bare peat. Many degraded blanket peatlands have undergone restoration measures since the turn of the century. However, there has been little formal communication of the techniques used and their success. Using practitioner knowledge and a review of the available literature, this paper discusses the methodologies used for restoring sloping blanket peatlands. It then considers current understanding of the impact of restoration on blanket peatland ecosystem services. There is a paucity of research investigating impacts of several common restoration techniques and much more is needed if informed management decisions are to be made and funding is to be appropriately spent. Where data are available we find that restoration is largely beneficial to many ecosystem services, with improvements being observed in water quality and ecology. However, the same restoration technique does not always result in the same outcomes in all locations. The difference in response is predominantly due to the spatial and temporal heterogeneity inherent in all blanket peatlands. Peatland practitioners must take this variability into account when designing restoration strategies and monitoring impact.

Permafrost peatlands contain globally important amounts of soil organic carbon, owing to cold conditions which suppress anaerobic decomposition. However, climate warming and permafrost thaw threaten the stability of this carbon store. The ultimate fate of permafrost peatlands and their carbon stores is unclear because of complex feedbacks between peat accumulation, hydrology and vegetation. Field monitoring campaigns only span the last few decades and therefore provide an incomplete picture of permafrost peatland response to recent rapid warming. Here we use a high-resolution palaeoecological approach to understand the longer-term response of peatlands in contrasting states of permafrost degradation to recent rapid warming. At all sites we identify a drying trend until the late-twentieth century; however, two sites subsequently experienced a rapid shift to wetter conditions as permafrost thawed in response to climatic warming, culminating in collapse of the peat domes. Commonalities between study sites lead us to propose a five-phase model for permafrost peatland response to climatic warming. This model suggests a shared ecohydrological trajectory towards a common end point: inundated Arctic fen. Although carbon accumulation is rapid in such sites, saturated soil conditions are likely to cause elevated methane emissions that have implications for climate-feedback mechanisms.

Evaluating the use of testate amoebae for palaeohydrological reconstruction in permafrost peatlands, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology (2015), doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2015 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. A C C E P T E D AbstractThe melting of high-latitude permafrost peatlands is a major concern due to a potential positive feedback on global climate change. We examine the ecology of testate amoebae in permafrost peatlands, based on sites in Arctic Sweden (~200 km north of the Arctic Circle). Multivariate statistical analysis confirms that water-table depth and moisture content are the dominant controls on the distribution of testate amoebae, corroborating the results from studies in mid-latitude peatlands. We present a new testate amoeba-based water table transfer function and thoroughly test it for the effects of spatial autocorrelation, clustered sampling design and uneven sampling gradients. We find that the transfer function has good predictive power; the best-performing model is based on tolerance-downweighted weighted averaging with inverse deshrinking (performance statistics with leave-one-out cross validation: R 2 = 0.87, RMSEP = 5.25 cm). The new transfer function was applied to a short core from Stordalen mire, and reveals a major shift in peatland ecohydrology coincident with the onset of the Little Ice Age (c. AD 1400). We also applied the model to an independent contemporary dataset from Stordalen and find that it outperforms predictions based on other published transfer functions. The new transfer function will enable palaeohydrological reconstruction from permafrost peatlands in Northern Europe, thereby permitting greatly improved understanding of the long-term ecohydrological dynamics of these important carbon stores as well as their responses to recent climate change.

Inventories of peat volume and carbon storage often include general values for peat depth, but more spatially explicit and accurate estimates are required if carbon management strategies are to be developed at scales appropriate for the management. This article presents a methodology for estimating peat depth for large blanket peat areas using field sampling and GIS modelling to map peat depth on Dartmoor in south‐west England. The study area was divided into carbon unit areas (CUAs) based on soil and vegetation. Approximately 1000 peat depth measurements were taken, each consisting of a mean (n = 5) from depths within a 32 m2 area. Sampling points were stratified according to CUA area and proportional extent of slope and elevation classes. Regression analyses were used to determine the relationships between slope, elevation and peat depth within each CUA. The strongest relationship was for blanket peat (r2 = 0.53), with weaker ones for areas where peat was shallow and depth was less variable. A digital elevation model was used in a GIS to model peat depths for the whole of Dartmoor. Results were tested against a data set of 200 peat depths on a 250 m grid covering 1325 ha. We conclude that peat depth can be modelled using easily available topographic data combined with well‐designed field sampling over larger spatial scales. The approach can result in accurate mapping of peat depth and carbon storage for blanket peatlands in the United Kingdom and perhaps also elsewhere.

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Estimates of peat depth are required to inform understanding of peatland development, functioning, and ecosystem services such as carbon storage. However, there is a considerable lack of peat depth data at local, national, and global scales. Recent studies have attempted to address this knowledge deficit by using manual probing and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to estimate depth. Despite increasing application, little consideration has been given to the accuracy of either of these techniques. This study examines the accuracy of probing and GPR for measuring peat depth. Corresponding GPR and probing surveys were carried out at a catchment scale in a blanket peatland. GPR depth estimations, calibrated using common midpoint (CMP) surveys, were found to be on average 35% greater than probe measurements. The source of disagreement was found to be predominantly caused by depth probes becoming obstructed by artifacts within the peat body, although occasionally probing rods also penetrated sediments underlying the peat. Using the Complex Refractive Index Model, it was found that applying a single velocity of 0.036 m ns À1 across a single site may also result in À8 to +17% error in estimation of peat depth due to spatial variability in water content and porosity. It is suggested that GPR calibrated at each site using CMP surveys may provide a more accurate method for measuring peat depth.

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T The expression of storm events in the geological record is poorly understood; therefore, stratigraphic investigations of known events are needed. The 1953 North Sea storm surge was the largest natural disaster for countries bordering the southern North Sea during the twentieth century. We characterize the spatial distribution of a sand deposit from the 1953 storm surge in a salt marsh at Holkham, Norfolk (UK). Radionuclide measurements, core scanning x-ray fluorescence (Itrax), and particle size analyses, were used to date and characterise the deposit. The deposit occurs at the onset of detectable 137 Cs -coeval with the first testing of nuclear weapons in the early 1950s. The sand layer is derived from material eroded from beach and dunes on the seaward side of the salt marsh. After the depositional event, accumulation of finer-grained silt and clay materials resumed. This work has important implications for understanding the responses of salt marshes to powerful storms and provides a near-modern analogue of storm surge events for calibration of extreme wave events in the geological record.