Environmental drivers of <i>Sphagnum</i> growth in peatlands across the Holarctic region

Bengtsson, Fia; Rydin, Håkan; Baltzer, Jennifer L.; Bragazza, Luca; Bu, Zhao Jun; Caporn, S. J. M.; Dorrepaal, Ellen; Flatberg, Kjell Ivar; Galanina, O. V.; Gałka, Mariusz; Ganeva, Anna; Goia, Irina; Goncharova, Nadezhda; Hájek, Michal; Haraguchi, Akira; Harris, Lorna I.; Humphreys, Elyn; Jiroušek, Martin; Kajukało, Katarzyna; Karofeld, Edgar; Koronatova, Natalia G.; Kosykh, Natalia P.; Laine, Anna; Lamentowicz, Mariusz; Лапшина, Е. Д.; Limpens, Juul; Linkosalmi, Maiju; Jin, Ze; Mauritz, Marguerite; Mitchell, Edward A. D.; Munir, Tariq Muhammad; Natali, Susan M.; Natcheva, Rayna; Payne, Richard J.; Philippov, Dmitriy; Rice, Steven K.; Robinson, Sean; Robroek, Bjorn J. M.; Rochefort, Line; Singer, David; Stenøien, Hans K.; Tuittila, Eeva‐Stiina; Vellak, Kai; Waddington, J. M.; Granath, Gustaf

doi:10.1111/1365-2745.13499

Cited by 42 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 99 publications

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“…Of course, sensitivity of Sphagnum to climate is species‐specific, but, for example, S . medium, a generalist species that increased in our site, is able to take advantage of increasing temperature (Bengtsson et al., 2021; Küttim et al., 2020). In addition, rich fen hummock species S. warnstorfii benefits from the absence of high‐water events, making it competitive against rich fen brown mosses (Granath et al., 2010), which may explain its increase.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Accelerated vegetation succession but no hydrological change in a boreal fen during 20 years of recent climate change

Kolari

Korpelainen

Kumpula

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Northern mires (fens and bogs) have significant climate feedbacks and contribute to biodiversity, providing habitats to specialized biota. Many studies have found drying and degradation of bogs in response to climate change, while northern fens have received less attention. Rich fens are particularly important to biodiversity, but subject to global climate change, fen ecosystems may change via direct response of vegetation or indirectly by hydrological changes. With repeated sampling over the past 20 years, we aim to reveal trends in hydrology and vegetation in a pristine boreal fen with gradient from rich to poor fen and bog vegetation. We resampled 203 semi‐permanent plots and compared water‐table depth (WTD), pH, concentrations of mineral elements, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC), plant species occurrences, community structure, and vegetation types between 1998 and 2018. In the study area, the annual mean temperature rose by 1.0°C and precipitation by 46 mm, in 20‐year periods prior to sampling occasions. We found that wet fen vegetation decreased, while bog and poor fen vegetation increased significantly. This reflected a trend of increasing abundance of common, generalist hummock species at the expense of fen specialist species. Changes were the most pronounced in high pH plots, where Sphagnum mosses had significantly increased in plot frequency, cover, and species richness. Changes of water chemistry were mainly insignificant in concentration levels and spatial patterns. Although indications toward drier conditions were found in vegetation, WTD had not consistently increased, instead, our results revealed complex dynamics of WTD as depending on vegetation changes. Overall, we found significant trend in vegetation, conforming to common succession pattern from rich to poor fen and bog vegetation. Our results suggest that responses intrinsic to vegetation, such as increased productivity or altered species interactions, may be more significant than indirect effects via local hydrology to the ecosystem response to climate warming.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Accelerated vegetation succession but no hydrological change in a boreal fen during 20 years of recent climate change

Kolari

Korpelainen

Kumpula

et al. 2021

Ecology and Evolution

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“…It is predicted that water availability will decrease substantially in southern Europe with climate change (e.g., Ruosteenoja et al 2018), which potentially can limit Sphagnum species southern distribution. In addition to the direct effect on growth, a drier climate can lead to increased cover of vascular plants in peatlands (Rydin and Jeglum 2013), which will further hamper Sphagnum performance (Berendse et al 2001, Bengtsson et al 2021). Such indirect effects can reduce the possibilities to predict the effects of climate change on Sphagnum species distribution.…”

Section: The Relationship Between Climate and Sphagnum Species Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatic drivers of Sphagnum species distributions

Campbell¹,

Granath²,

Rydin³

2021

Frontiers of Biogeography

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Peat mosses (genus Sphagnum) dominate most Northern mires and show distinct distributional limits in Europe despite having efficient dispersal and few dispersal barriers. This pattern indicates that Sphagnum species distributions are strongly linked to climate. Sphagnum-dominated mires have been the largest terrestrial carbon sinks in Europe over the last few millennia. Understanding the climatic drivers of Sphagnum species distributions is important for predicting the future Climatic drivers of Sphagnum species distributions 2 functionality of peatlands. We used MaxEnt, with biologically relevant climatic variables, to model and clarify the current distributions of 45 Sphagnum species in Europe. We used a dataset of 238 316 records from across Europe (30° to 90° N, -30° to 63° E; Sahara to the Arctic, Azores to Ural mountains). We used annual degree-days, annual water balance and their monthly standard deviations (i.e. seasonality) as climatic predictors over a range of spatial resolutions (from 10 to 200 km pixel size). With these climatic predictors, we produced reasonably accurate projections of the distribution of 45 species (overall AUC >0.8). Large pixels (100 and 200 km) resulted in loss of detail, but smaller pixels (10-50 km) performed well across fit measurements. Projected distributions at the 50 × 50 km resolution showed the largest resemblance to published distribution maps. Suitable climate for many Sphagnum species was associated with the northern, western and mountainous parts of Europe. We found that annual water balance was an important indicator of Sphagnum presence. Limits in relation to annual water balance were the same as reported by bioclimatic peatland models from North America. Most Sphagnum species were limited to annual degree-days between -5000 °C y -1 and 5000 °C y -1 . Seasonality in both climate variables separated species, with degree-day seasonality having a stronger influence than water balance seasonality.High degree-day seasonality as a consequence of cold temperature sets a northern distribution limit to some species. The results suggest that the future of Sphagnum diversity in Europe is most strongly dependent on changes in water availability and in seasonal temperature variation. Highlights• Peat mosses (Sphagnum) form northern peatlands and species have different distributions across Europe.• We model the climatic suitability for all European species using multiple databases and MaxEnt models.• The climatic suitability for most species can be accurately modelled with mean annual temperature and water balance and their variation over the year.• Sphagnum has its highest species richness in northwestern Europe.• The magnitude of temperature fluctuations over the year is an important climatic variable that separates current species distributions.

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“…The AGP and IL of Sphagnum in the rewetted sites was similar to those reported by Ilomets (1982) in Estonian undisturbed peatlands, while we measured about double the production and somewhat higher IL of Sphagna on the undisturbed sites. This probably results from different methods used for growth measurements (Pouliot et al 2010), variations in weather conditions (Vitt 1990;Bengtsson et al 2020) and species composition (Lindholm and Vasander 1990;Bengtsson et al 2020).…”

Section: Co Uxes and Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time Since Rewetting Defines Vegetation Composition and Carbon Dioxide Fluxes on Former Milled Peatlands - Comparison With Undisturbed Bogs

Purre

Ilomets

2021

Preprint

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Rewetting is the most common restoration approach for milled peatlands in Europe, with the aim of creating suitable conditions for the development of peatland specific plant cover and carbon accumulation. Therefore, it is important to determine if time since rewetting is pivotal for milled peatlands to become functionally and structurally similar to their undisturbed counterparts. We investigate the temporal succession in rewetted peatlands in Estonia by a chronosequence of 4, 15, and 35 years before the measurements. Plant functional type (PFT) cover and biomass, bryophyte production and CO2 fluxes were measured on two milled peatlands, as well as undisturbed bogs adjacent to milled peatlands. Differences in vegetation composition and CO2 fluxes between the sites were greater for rewetted than undisturbed sites. The most recently rewetted site was mainly covered in bare peat and Eriophorum vaginatum and was a CO2 source. On the rewetted site of 15 years, Sphagnum was present in addition to ombrotrophic sedges, and in the rewetted site of 35 years, lawn-hollow microtopography is starting to develop with various PFTs. Both of these sites were CO2 sinks. Lawn Sphagnum was abundant on the two older rewetted sites, and was connected with CO2 sink functioning in the rewetted sites. Still, hummock Sphagnum species, which were present in undisturbed bogs, were absent from all of the rewetted sites. With time, CO2 fluxes, microtopography and vegetation develop after rewetting in the direction of undisturbed bogs, while vegetation composition still differs from the reference sites even 35 years after rewetting.

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Environmental drivers of Sphagnum growth in peatlands across the Holarctic region

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 42 publications

References 99 publications

Accelerated vegetation succession but no hydrological change in a boreal fen during 20 years of recent climate change

Accelerated vegetation succession but no hydrological change in a boreal fen during 20 years of recent climate change

Climatic drivers of Sphagnum species distributions

Time Since Rewetting Defines Vegetation Composition and Carbon Dioxide Fluxes on Former Milled Peatlands - Comparison With Undisturbed Bogs

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