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Rapid development of an unusual peat-accumulating ecosystem in the Chilean Altiplano

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Lisa R. Earle ,
Barry G. Warner  and
Ramon Aravena
Lisa R. Earle
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Barry G. Warner*
Affiliation:
Wetlands Research Centre, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
Ramon Aravena
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (B.G. Warner).
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Abstract

Stratigraphic relationships, radiocarbon dating, sediment and peat characteristics, and rates of peat and carbon accumulation from a soligenous peatland, or “bofedal,” in the Chilean Altiplano shows the peatland to be unusually young, dynamic, and sensitive to environmental changes. The site lies in the National Park Nevado de Tres Cruces in the puna desert grassland at an elevation of 4300 m a.s.l. Eight peat cores were extracted from a 1.75-km transect yielding a maximum of 3.6 m of organic sediment. Organic matter began to accumulate 1700–1100 cal yr B.P. under a progressively arid local climate, after a period when regional climate is believed to have been more humid than at present. Areas of greater relief and better drainage in the valley bottom eventually fostered the growth of a riparian cushion plant community after water flowing down the valley began to diminish. This led to rapid lateral expansion of the riparian peatland communities over open water in topographic depressions at a rate heretofore unprecedented in the peatland literature. It appears that development of the peatland has been encouraged by autoregulation of internal hydrology. The drainage impediment created by organic mass accumulation in lower-relief areas probably reduced the amount of water arriving at the lower reaches of the peatland. These areas have become progressively drier and have since died and oxidized. Through endogenous peat accumulation and a concomitant drainage impediment, the ecosystem has been migrating upstream over the past 50 years.

Keywords

Peatlands, PaleoecologyCarbon accumulationAltiplanoCentral AndesSouth AmericaHolocene
Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 2 - 11
Copyright
Elsevier Science (USA)

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