Journal article
Quantifying the effect of testate amoeba decomposition on peat-based water-table reconstructions.
- Swindles GT Geography, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast, UK; Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre and Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Electronic address: g.swindles@qub.ac.uk.
- Roland TP Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, UK.
- Amesbury MJ Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, UK.
- Lamentowicz M Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Monitoring, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland.
- McKeown MM Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand.
- Sim TG School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK.
- Fewster RE School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK.
- Mitchell EAD Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Jardin Botanique de Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
- 2020-04-20
Published in:
- European journal of protistology. - 2020
Palaeoecology
Peatlands
Protists
Taphonomy
Testate amoebae
Water-table reconstruction
Amoeba
Groundwater
Hydrology
Soil
English
Testate amoebae are a widely-used tool for palaeohydrological reconstruction from peatlands. However, it has been observed that weak idiosomic siliceous tests (WISTs) are common in uppermost peats, but very rarely found as subfossils deeper in the peat profile. This taphonomic problem has been noted widely and it has been established that WISTs disaggregate and/or dissolve in the low pH condition of ombrotrophic peatlands. Here we investigate the effect of this taphonomic problem on water-table reconstructions from thirty European peatlands through the comparison of reconstructions based on all taxa and those with WISTs removed. In almost all cases the decomposition of WISTs does not introduce discernible bias to peatland water-table reconstructions. However, some discrepancy is apparent when large abundances of Corythion-Trinema type are present (9-12 cm deviation with 50-60% abundance of this particular taxon). We recommend that WISTs should be removed before carrying out water-table reconstructions, and that the minimum count of testate amoebae per sample should exclude WISTs to ensure the development of robust reconstructions.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- closed
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1016/j.ejop.2020.125693
- PMID 32305703
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/278183
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