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Use of Bomb-Produced 14C to Evaluate the Amount of CO2 Emanating from Two Peat Bogs in Finland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Högne Jungner
Affiliation:
Dating Laboratory, University of Helsinki, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Eloni Sonninen
Affiliation:
Dating Laboratory, University of Helsinki, FIN-00014 Helsinki, Finland
Göran Possnert
Affiliation:
The Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala University, S-75121 Uppsala, Sweden
Kimmo Tolonen
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Joensuu, FIN-80101 Joensuu, Finland
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Abstract

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We used moss increment counting to obtain well-defined samples of the topmost peat layers of two Sphagnum fuscum hummocks. The two ombrotrophic bogs, Lakkasuo in central Finland and Korvinsuo in eastern Finland, are of different ages, covering 3 and 9 ka, respectively. Using AMS dating, we traced bomb-produced 14C through the topmost parts of the two peat profiles. A well-defined 14C activity peak was found in both sequences dating the corresponding layer to ad 1965. A comparison between the maximum peat activities and the corresponding atmospheric values for the period of interest provides an opportunity to evaluate the amount of CO2 emanating from the decaying peat bog, and taken up by the living sphagnum plants.

Considerable variations in δ13C values were also observed. These variations indicate, at least partly, annual variations in the emission rate of CO2 from decomposition of older peat in the bog, and are connected with climatic factors such as temperature and precipitation.

Type
IV. 14C as a Tracer of the Dynamic Carbon Cycle in the Current Environment
Copyright
Copyright © the Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona 

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