Abstract
Peatlands offer the potential for high resolution records of water balance over Holocene timescales, yet this potential is under-exploited in many areas of the world. Within Europe, peatlands are mostly confined to areas north of 55° N, but several areas of southern and eastern Europe contain small peatlands which may be suitable for palaeoclimatic reconstruction. In this paper we test the potential of peatlands in the Carpathian region for deriving quantified estimates of water table changes using testate amoebae analysis. A training set for palaeohydrological reconstruction from testate amoebae assemblages was obtained by collecting surface samples from 13 peatlands, including 9 from Hungary and 4 from Transylvania (Romania). Using a simple measure of mean annual water tables estimated from staining of PVC tape, we found that some peatlands were heavily influenced by runoff and groundwater, and were therefore not suitable as modern analogues of ombrotrophic climatically sensitive sites. The relationship between the testate amoebae assemblages in the modern samples and the environmental variables was explored using CCA. The CCA biplot showed that the most important variables are depth to water table and moisture content, confirming that hydrology is a key control on taxon distribution. pH was a secondary gradient. A transfer function for % moisture and depth to water table was established and applied to fossil assemblages from a sequence from Fenyves-tető, Transylvania, Romania. The reconstructed water table shows a number of variations which have parallels with other palaeoclimatic records from Europe and the North Atlantic prominent phases of higher water tables are associated with the periods 8000–8300 cal BP, 3000–2500 cal BP and after 600 cal BP. We suggest that these were periods of particular intensification of westerly airflow which affected eastern Europe as well as western and central Europe.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
N Bacsó (1959) Magyarország éghajlata (The climate of Hungary) Akadémiai Kiadó Budapest 302
H Bahnson (1968) ArticleTitleKolorimetriske bestemmelser af humificeringstal i højmosetørv fra Fuglsø Mose på Djursland Medd Dansk Geol Foren 18 55–63
KE Barber DJ Charman (2003) Holocene palaeoclimate records from peatlands AW Mackay RW Battarbee HJB Birks F Oldfield (Eds) Global change in the Holocene Edward Arnold London 210–226
KE Barber FM Chambers D Maddy (2003) ArticleTitleHolocene palaeoclimates from peat stratigraphy: macrofossil proxy-climate records from three oceanic raised bogs in England and Ireland Quat Sci Rev 22 521–539 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0277-3791(02)00185-3
LR Belyea (1999) ArticleTitleA novel indicator of reducing conditions and water-table depth in mires Funct Ecol 13 431–434 Occurrence Handle10.1046/j.1365-2435.1999.00333.x
KD Bennett (2002) Documentation for psimpoll 4.10 and pscomb 1.03. C programs for plotting pollen diagrams and analysing pollen data Quaternary Geology Geocentrum, Uppsala University Uppsala
L Bjorkman A Feurdean B Wohlfarth (2002) ArticleTitleLate-glacial and Holocene forest dynamics at Steregoiu in the Gutaiului Mountains, Northwest Romania Rev Palaeobot Palynol 2514 1–33
A Bodnariuc A Bouchette JJ Dedoubat T Otto M Fontugne G Jalut (2002) ArticleTitleHolocene vegetational history of the Apuseni mountains, central Romania Quat Sci Rev 21 1465–1488 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0277-3791(01)00117-2
G Bond B Kromer J Beer R Muscheler MN Evans W Showers S Hoffmann R Lotti-Bond I Hajdas G Bonani (2001) ArticleTitlePersistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene Science 294 2130–2136 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DC%2BD3MXptVOnu74%3D Occurrence Handle10.1126/science.1065680
D Charman (2002) Peatlands and environmental change J. Wiley and Sons London, New York
DJ Charman BG Warner (1992) ArticleTitleRelationship between testate amoebae (Protozoa: Rhizopoda) and microenvironmental parameters on a forested peatland in northeastern Ontario Can J Zool 70 2474–2482 Occurrence Handle10.1139/z92-331
DJ Charman D Hendon W Woodland (2000) The identification of peatland testate amoebae Quaternary Research Association, Technical Guide no.9 London
Charman DJ, Blundell A, Chiverrell RC, Hendon D, Langdon PG (2005) Compilation of non-annually resolved Holocene proxy climate records: Stacked Holocene peatland palaeo-water table reconstructions from northern Britain. Quat Sci Rev 25 (in press).
PC Jowsey (1966) ArticleTitleAn improved peat sampler New Phytol 65 245–248 Occurrence Handle10.1111/j.1469-8137.1966.tb06356.x
S Juggins (2003) C2 User guide. Software for ecological and palaeoecological data analysis and visualisation University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne
J Justyák (1994) Európa éghajlata (The climate of Europe) Kossuth Lajos University Debrecen
J Justyák (2002) Magyarország éghajlata (The climate of Hungary) University of Debrecen Debrecen
E Lappalainen (Eds) (1996) Global peat resources International Peat Society Finland
RA Lindsay DJ Charman F Everingham RM O’Reilly MA Palmer TA Rowell DA Stroud (1988) The flow country: the peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland Nature Conservancy Council Peterborough
M Magny (2004) ArticleTitleHolocene climate variability as reflected by mid-European lake- level fluctuations and its probable impact on prehistoric human settlements Quat Int 113 65–79 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S1040-6182(03)00080-6
M Magny C Begeot J Guiot O Peyron (2003) ArticleTitleContrasting patterns of hydrological changes in Europe in response to Holocene climate cooling phases Quat Sci Rev 22 1589–1596 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0277-3791(03)00131-8
LD Meeker PA Mayewski (2002) ArticleTitleA 1400-year high-resolution record of atmospheric circulation over the North Atlantic and Asia The Holocene 12 257–266 Occurrence Handle10.1191/0959683602hl542ft
EAD Mitchell AJ Buttler BG Warner JM Gobat (1999) ArticleTitleEcology of testate amoebae (Protozoa: Rhizopoda) in Sphagnum peatlands in the Jura mountains, Switzerland and France Ecoscience 6 565–576
C Schnitchen E Magyari B Tóthmérész I Grigorszky M Braun (2003) ArticleTitleMicropaleontological observations on a Sphagnum bog in East Carpathian region—testate amoebae (Rhizopoda: Testacea) and their potential use for reconstruction of micro- and macroclimatic changes Hydrobiologia 506–509 45–49 Occurrence Handle10.1023/B:HYDR.0000008553.82554.c2
Schnitchen C, Magyari E, Charman DJ, Tóthmérész B, Grigorszky I, Béres V, Braun M The possibility of reconstruction of past hydrological changes in a Sphagnum bog by the use of testate amoebae (Rhizopoda: Testacea) in the Carphatian Basin. Proceedings of SIL XXIX Congress, Lahti, Finland, 8–14 August, 2004 (in press).
A Speranza B Geel Particlevan J Plicht Particlevan der (2003) ArticleTitleEvidence for solar forcing of climate change at ca. 850 cal BC from a Czech peat sequence Global Planetary Change 35 51–65 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0921-8181(02)00091-7
A Speranza J Hanke B Geel Particlevan J Fanta (2000) ArticleTitleLate-holocene human impact and peat development in the Cerna Hora bog, Krkonose Mountains, Czech Republic Holocene 10 575–585 Occurrence Handle10.1191/095968300668946885
G Szász L Tőkei (1997) Meteorológia mezőgazdáknak, kertészeknek, erdészeknek (Meteororlogy for agrarians, horticulturists and foresters) Mezőgazda Kiadó Budapest
I Tantau M Reille JL Beaulieu Particlede S Farcas T Goslar M Paterne (2003) ArticleTitleVegetation history in the Eastern Romanian Carpathians: pollen analysis of two sequences from the Mohos crater Veg Hist Archaeobot 12 113–125 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s00334-003-0015-6
CJF Ter Braak (1988) CANOCO—a FORTRAN program for canonical community ordination by (partial) (detrended) (canonical) correspondence analysis, principal components analysis and redundancy analysis (version 2.1) Technical Report LWA-88-02, GLW Wageningen
K Tolonen BG Warner H Vasander (1992) ArticleTitleEcology of testaceans (Protozoa, Rhizopoda) in mires in southern Finland I. Autecology Arch Protistenkd 142 119–138
K Tolonen BG Warner H Vasander (1994) ArticleTitleEcology of testaceans (Protozoa: Rhizopoda) in mires in southern Finland: II Multivariate analysis Arch Protistenkd 144 97–112
B Geel ParticleVan J Buurman HT Waterbolk (1996) ArticleTitleArchaeological and palaeoecological indications of an abrupt climate change in The Netherlands, and evidence for climatological teleconnections around 2650 BP J Quat Sci 11 451–460 Occurrence Handle10.1002/(SICI)1099-1417(199611/12)11:6<451::AID-JQS275>3.0.CO;2-9
WA Woodland DJ Charman PC Sims (1998) ArticleTitleQuantitative estimates of water tables and soil moisture in Holocene peatlands from testate amoebae Holocene 8 261–273 Occurrence Handle10.1191/095968398667004497
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schnitchen, C., Charman, D.J., Magyari, E. et al. Reconstructing hydrological variability from testate amoebae analysis in Carpathian peatlands. J Paleolimnol 36, 1–17 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-0001-y
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-006-0001-y