Bog microtopography and the climatic sensitivity of testate amoeba communities: implications for transfer function-based paleo-water table reconstructions

Stastney, P. and Black, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1396-4821 (2020) Bog microtopography and the climatic sensitivity of testate amoeba communities: implications for transfer function-based paleo-water table reconstructions. Microbial Ecology, 80. pp. 309-321. ISSN 1432-184X doi: 10.1007/s00248-020-01499-5

Abstract/Summary

Although the use of sub-fossil testate amoebae as a proxy for raised bog hydrology in Holocene paleoecological studies is well-established, some detailed aspects of species-environment relationships remain under-researched. One such issue is the effect of bog surface microtopography on the climatic sensitivity of testate amoeba communities. Although it has been suggested that some microforms—especially hummocks—may be less sensitive to climatic forcing than others, this has rarely been objectively tested. To investigate this, subfossil testate amoebae assemblages have been examined in a series of shallow cores collected along a hummock-lawn-hollow transect from a bog in central Ireland and the resulting reconstructed water table records, dated using 210Pb, have been compared with instrumental weather data. Testate amoebae communities in the hollow microform were found to be significantly less diverse than those in the hummock and lawn, and both the hummock and lawn showed statistically significant correlations with instrumental temperature and precipitation data. Therefore, whilst the suggestion that paleoecological investigations should target intermediate bog microforms remains sound, the notion that hummock-based testate amoebae hydrological data are climatically-insensitive is challenged.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/89888
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Geography and Environmental Science
Publisher	Springer
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