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Dynamic Vertical Profiles of Peat Porewater Chemistry in a Northern Peatland

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Abstract

We measured pH, cations, nutrients, and total organic carbon (TOC) over 3 years to examine weekly to monthly variability in porewater chemistry depth profiles (0–3.0 m) in an ombrotrophic bog in Minnesota, USA. We also compared temporal variation at one location to spatial variation in depth profiles at 16 locations across the bog. Most solutes exhibited large gradients with depth. pH increased by two units and calcium concentrations increased over 20 fold with depth, and may reflect peatland development from minerotrophic to ombrotrophic conditions. Ammonium concentrations increased almost 20 fold and TOC concentrations decreased by half with depth, and these patterns likely reflect mineralization of peat or decomposition of TOC. There was also considerable temporal variation in the porewater chemistry depth profiles. Ammonium, soluble reactive phosphorus, and potassium showed greater temporal variation in near-surface porewater, while pH, calcium, and TOC varied more at depth. This variation demonstrates that deep peat porewater chemistry is not static. Lastly, temporal variation in solute chemistry depth profiles was greater than spatial variation in several instances, especially in shallow porewaters. Characterizing both temporal and spatial variability is necessary to ensure representative sampling in peatlands, especially when calculating solute pools and fluxes and parameterizing process-based models.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the late Pat Mulholland for his guidance, mentoring, and friendship. Pat’s input into the early stages of this project greatly improved our experimental design and analysis. We thank K. Oleheiser, N. Aspelin, J. Larson, C. Dorrance, D. Kyllander, R. Nettles, J. Riggs, R. Peterson, B. Munson, M. Olds, M. Wiley, and L. Kastenson for technical assistance, and P. Hanson and R. Kolka for manuscript comments and for their leadership on the Spruce and Peatland Responses Under Climatic and Environmental Change (SPRUCE) project. Comments from two anonymous reviewers greatly improved an earlier version of this manuscript. This research was part of the SPRUCE project and supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research and the Northern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.

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Correspondence to Natalie A. Griffiths.

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Note: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

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Griffiths, N.A., Sebestyen, S.D. Dynamic Vertical Profiles of Peat Porewater Chemistry in a Northern Peatland. Wetlands 36, 1119–1130 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-016-0829-5

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