The Geochemistry of Ombrotrophic Sphagnum Species Growing in Different Microhabitats Of Eight German and Belgian Peat Bogs and the Regional Atmospheric Deposition

Abstract

Comparing today's atmospheric deposition records with the elemental concentration and the netuptake rates of ombrotrophic Sphagnum mosses from eight German and Belgian peat bogs revealed that most of all the quality and number of regularly obtained deposition monitoring data is not satisfactory. Moreover, it seems likely that the deposition rate, determined by Sphagnum mosses, does not reliably reflect the record of the total open field deposition indicated by the deposition monitoring data. The moss data, too, show a distinct spatial variability possibly because the geochemistry of peat mosses differs according to the annual growth in height, the total surface area and the surface roughness of the receptor 'peat moss' (special interception deposition). Increased Ti concentration values, for example, combined with a high annual growth rate in height at the hollow moss S. cuspidatum resulted in generally high Ti net-uptake rates and a high Ti inventory (total Ti in sample). We, therefore, suggest that productive Sphagnum species might be able to fix more Ti particles on their larger surface area than less productive species do. Moreover, the results demonstrate that for reliably calculating Sphagnum elemental net-uptake rates, as well as for all quantification of Sphagnum or peat geochemistry on a time and area basis, an accurate knowledge of the period the collected samples were exposed to atmospheric deposition is required. In particular, to do reliable reconstructions of past atmospheric deposition rates using peat deposits, further studies are needed to precisely specify the spatial variability in the geochemistry of living Sphagnum mosses.

Stable (206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb) and radioactive (210Pb) lead isotopes in 1year of growth of Sphagnum moss from four ombrotrophic bogs in southern Germany: Geochemical significance and environmental implications

“…Wildseemoor (WI) and Hohlohseemoor (HO) are situated in the Northern Black Forest (NBF) and Gschwender Filz (GS) and Kläperfilz (KL) are situated in Oberbayern (OB). Some basic information about these sites is given in Table 1, with further details and literature summarized elsewhere (Kempter and Frenzel, 2007).…”

Accumulation and Average Contents of Trace Elements in the High-Moor Peat of Tomsk Region (Western Siberia, Russia)

“…There is lack of data on the average contents of chemical elements in peat both in Russia and other countries. Generally element contents are estimated for two or maximum five bogs (Kempter and Frenzel, 2007;Hans and Mall, 2006;Gorham and Janssens, 2005;Headley, 1996;Glooschenko and Capobianco, 1978). It is not enough for the assessment of environmental changes due to anthropogenic impact.…”

Mineral nutrient economy in competing species of Sphagnum mosses

“…Although many studies have dealt with mineral nutrients, particularly tissue cation content, in several Sphagnum species (e.g., Pakarinen 1978Pakarinen , 1981Aulio 1980Aulio , 1982Lembrechts and Vanderborght 1985;Malmer 1988;Malmer et al 1992;Wojtun´1994;Kempter and Frenzel 2007) none of them has distinguished between the extracellular exchangeable and intracellular pools of cations. Yet, the two main compartments prefer different cations in Sphagnum (Brehm 1968) and in other mosses (Brown and Buck 1979;Bates 1982Bates , 1987Bates , 1992Bates , 1997Koedam and Bu¨scher 1982;Wells and Brown 1996;Brown and Br" umelis 1996;Br" umelis and Brown 1997;Br" umelis et al 2000).…”