Natural and anthropogenic influences on peat development in Waikato/Hauraki Plains restiad bogs

Shearer, J.C.

doi:10.1080/03014223.1997.9517540

Cited by 31 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Vegetation and soils were sampled in plots following the methods of Clarkson et al (2003). A subset of these wetlands was studied in more detail for vegetation characterisation and peat process understanding (Shearer 1997;Shearer and Clarkson 1998;Schipper and McLeod 2002;Clarkson et al 2004a, b;Fritz et al 2008;Blyth 2011). Soil cores were obtained using a steel liner 10 cm diameter and 7 cm deep (550 cm 3 volume), after removing living vegetation and litter at the surface and avoiding any anomalies in the profile such as wood.…”

Section: Data Used In the Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil carbon stocks in wetlands of New Zealand and impact of land conversion since European settlement

Ausseil

Jamali

Clarkson

et al. 2015

Wetlands Ecol Manage

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Freshwater wetlands provide a range of ecosystem services, one of which is climate regulation. They are known to contain large pools of carbon (C) that can be affected by land-use change. In New Zealand, only 10 % of the original freshwater wetlands remain due to conversion into agriculture. This study presents the first national estimation of C stocks in freshwater wetlands based on the compilation of soil carbon data from 126 sites across the country. We estimated C stocks for two soil sample types (mineral and organic) in different classes of wetlands (fen, bog, swamp, marsh, pakihi and ephemeral), and extrapolated C stocks to national level using GIS. Bogs had high C content and low bulk densities, while ephemeral wetlands were the reverse. A regression between bulk density and C content showed a high influence of the soil type. Average C densities (average ± standard error) were 1,348 ± 184 t C ha -1 at full peat depth (average of 3.9 m) and 102 ± 5 t C ha -1 (0.3 m depth) for organic soils, and 121 ± 24 t C ha -1 (0.3 m depth) for mineral soils. At national level, C stocks were estimated at 11 ± 1 Mt (0.3 m depth) and 144 ± 17 Mt (full peat depth) in organic soils, and 23 ± 1 Mt (0.3 m depth) in mineral soils. Since European settlement, 146,000 ha of organic soils have been converted to agriculture, which could release between 0.5 and 2 Mt CO 2 year -1 , equivalent to 1-6 % of New Zealand's total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions.

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Section: Data Used In the Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil carbon stocks in wetlands of New Zealand and impact of land conversion since European settlement

Ausseil

Jamali

Clarkson

et al. 2015

Wetlands Ecol Manage

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“…engineering can occur in small kettlehole bogs or even on quarry floors; Lamentowicz et al 2008 andAndreas &Host 1983, respectively). Nor are long periods of time essential, providing a fen-based peat is present (Cranwell 1953;Zobel & Masing 1987;Shearer 1997;Robichaud & Begin 2009). Therefore it is possible for FBTs to occur in small, isolated patches of a larger mire system, as proposed by Vitt (1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The first set of mechanisms isolate an existing peat outcrop by physical means, so that only meteoric water can impinge upon the incipient bog surface, increasing its hydrological isolation, and initiating ombrotrophic conditions: physical decrease in water table, which, when occurring allogenically, can only be by changes in catchment-level hydrology such as that caused by landslides (cf. Lowe et al 1999), river channel adjustments (Kulczynski 1949;Campbell 1964), sea level changes (Newnham et al 1995), isostatic rebound (Glaser et al 2004), and tephra deposition (de Lange 1989;Shearer 1997); climatic change in rainfall leading to groundwater flow reversals, isolating the peatland surface (Winkler 1988;Foster & Wright 1990;Siegel et al 1995;Glaser et al 1996;McGlone et al 1997;Halsey et al 2000;Robichaud & Begin 2009). The second set of mechanisms leads to an increase in height of a peat body by decreasing the peat decomposition rate (by implication, while maintaining D/P B1): decrease in temperature, decreasing evapotranspiration, thereby decreasing the depth of the (aerobic) acrotelm, so that litter reaches the catotelm in a less decomposed state; increase in precipitation, so that the ground water influence on the peat mass is lessened, and ombrotrophy is promoted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

IsEmpodisma minusthe ecosystem engineer of the FBT (fen–bog transition zone) in New Zealand?

Hodges

Rapson

2010

Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand

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The role of ecosystem engineers (EE) in the formation of ombrotrophic mires (bogs) from fens, called the fenÁbog transition (FBT), can be best understood through categorization of the autogenic and allogenic processes causing bog initiation. Here we review these pathways, discuss the drivers of change in both cases, and tabulate an approach for distinguishing between them. We then compare the engineering ability of acknowledged and putative engineers against a number of characters which plants require to cross the FBT, and to stabilize occupancy on the bog side. While some Sphagnum spp. are accepted as the EE of the fenÁbog transition in northern hemisphere bogs, they appear unimportant in New Zealand. Instead their role appears to be occupied by a restiad, Empodisma minus, a plant with leafless, wiry stems and capillaroid roots. Empodisma minus appears capable of engineering autogenic transitions from fen to bog across New Zealand, even more efficiently than Sphagnum.

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“…Where groundwater levels are lowered, even seasonally, effects may include changes in the wetland vegetation community composition (Boulton & Brock 1999;Breeuwer et al 2009;Wheeler 1999). With longer term and/or persistent lowering of the water table, effects may include succession from swamps to drier heath, sedgeland, grassland or forest communities, extirpation of groundwater dependent species, changes in groundwater quality and soil chemistry (Wheeler 1999) and degradation of peat (Shearer 1997) and peatlands (Moore 2002;Whittington & Price 2006).…”

Section: Increasing Threats To Swampsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation, fauna and groundwater interrelations in low nutrient temperate montane peat swamps in the upper Blue Mountains, New South Wales.

Benson¹,

Baird²

2012

Cunninghamia

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Newnes Plateau Shrub Swamps are a series of low nutrient temperate montane peat swamps around 1100 m elevation in the upper Blue Mountains, west of Sydney (lat 33° 23' S; long 150° 13'E). Transect-based vegetation studies show a closely related group of swamps with expanses of permanently moist, gently sloping peatlands. Vegetation patterns are related to surface hydrology and subsurface topography, which determine local peat depth. While there is evidence that a group of the highest elevation swamps on the western side of the Plateau are more dependent on rainwater, the majority of swamps, particularly those in the Carne Creek catchment, and east and south of it, may be considered primarily groundwater dependent with a permanently high watertable maintained by groundwater aquifers. An integral part of the swamps are a number of threatened groundwater dependent biota (plants-Boronia deanei subsp. deanei, Dillwynia stipulifera, dragonfly-Petalura gigantea, lizard-Eulamprus leuraensis), which are obligate swamp dwellers. This association of dependence leaves the entire swamp ecosystem highly susceptible to threats from any loss of groundwater, the current major one being the impact of damage to the confining aquicludes, aquitards, aquifers and peat substrates as a result of subsidence associated with longwall mining. Impacts on the swamps may also result from changes to hydrology through damming of creeks, mine waste water discharge, increased moisture competition from pine plantations, recreational motorbike and off-road vehicle tracks and climate change.If these groundwater dependent ecosystems do not receive protection from activities such as longwall mining subsidence, significant ecological damage is unlikely to be avoided or able to be mitigated even where provisions of the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation and NSW Threatened Species Conservation Acts apply to groundwater dependent swamps and biota. The importance of the highest elevation part of the Plateau for a number of restricted (some endemic) plant species is also discussed.

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Natural and anthropogenic influences on peat development in Waikato/Hauraki Plains restiad bogs

Cited by 31 publications

References 7 publications

Soil carbon stocks in wetlands of New Zealand and impact of land conversion since European settlement

Soil carbon stocks in wetlands of New Zealand and impact of land conversion since European settlement

IsEmpodisma minusthe ecosystem engineer of the FBT (fen–bog transition zone) in New Zealand?

Vegetation, fauna and groundwater interrelations in low nutrient temperate montane peat swamps in the upper Blue Mountains, New South Wales.

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