CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Errington, R.C.; and Vitt, D.H.
Date : 2002.
Title : Peatland development along a climatic gradient in northwestern British Columbia.
Publication : Annual Meeting of the Canadian Geophysical Union. May 18-21, 2002, Banff, Alberta.
Issue :
Page(s) :
Abstract
Over one third of the global soil carbon stocks are found in peatlands and Canada contains more peatlands than any other country in the world. In Canada, most peatland development and carbon accumulation studies have been conducted in Boreal regions. On the northwestern coast of British Columbia peatlands cover up to 75% of the landscape yet no studies have examined these peatlands either in terms of development or rate of peat, and thus carbon, accumulation. In order to determine developmental differences along a climatic gradient, cores were taken from five peat deposits along a transect from hyperoceanic to continental climate regions in northwestern British Columbia. Preliminary macrofossil analysis of these cores indicates two distinct groupings of species. The oceanic cores contain three species not found in cores from continental and transitional sites. These species, Racomitrium lanuginosum, Sphagnum austinii, and Sphagnum papillosum, are all associated with present-day coastal climates. Meesia triquetra, Campylium stellatum, Scorpidium scorpioides and species of Drepanocladus and Calliergon, all indicative of continental and sub continental climates, are absent from oceanic cores but are found in cores from both the continental and transitional sites. Mode of peatland initiation differed along the climatic gradient with transitional and continental cores developing from lakes or shallow marshes while oceanic systems formed poor fen peat directly over bedrock or mineral soil. Long term apparent rates of carbon accumulation were also calculated along this gradient and are comparable with values from Boreal North America. These results indicate that the coastal peatlands are different from those of the transitional and continental regions, and have been different since initiation. However, these differences, do not appear to have influenced the rate of carbon accumulation, which was within the observed range of variation seen in Boreal peatlands.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology