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Holocene peatland development along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Hai Xu ,
Bin Liu ,
Jianghu Lan ,
Enguo Sheng ,
Shuai Che  and
Sheng Xu
Hai Xu*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
Bin Liu
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Jianghu Lan
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Enguo Sheng
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Shuai Che
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
Sheng Xu
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QF, UK
*
*Corresponding author at: Fenghui South Road, #10, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province 710075, China. Fax: + 86 29 8832 5139. E-mail address:xuhai2003@263.net (H. Xu).
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Abstract

Knowledge of peatland initiation, accumulation, and decline or cessation is critical in understanding peatland development and the related carbon source/sink effect. In this study, we investigated the development of three peat profiles along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (ETP) and compared the results with those of our previous work along this transect. Our work showed that the initiation over the northern ETP is later and the slowdown/cessation earlier than in the middle to southern ETP. The timing of optimum peatland formation over the northern ETP lags the Holocene climatic optimum. These spatio-temporal differences are likely to be related to the intensity of Asian summer monsoon. Our work suggests that some peatlands along the ETP transect have returned or are now returning their previously captured carbon to the atmosphere and thus act as carbon sources. Some peatlands still have net accumulation at present, but the rates have been reduced concomitant with the decreasing summer monsoon intensity. We speculate that more of the previously stored carbon in the ETPpeatlands will be re-emitted to the atmosphere if the aridity continues, as might occur under a continuous global-warming scenario.

Keywords

Peatland developmentAccumulation rateCarbon effectEastern Tibetan Plateau
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 80 , Issue 1 , July 2013 , pp. 47 - 54
Copyright
University of Washington

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