title: Highly anomalous accumulation rates of C and N recorded by a relic, free-floating peatland in Central Italy.
abstract: Floating islands mysteriously moving around on lakes were described by several Latin authors almost two millennia ago. These fascinating ecosystems, known as free-floating mires, have been extensively investigated from ecological, hydrological and management points of view, but there have been no detailed studies of their rates of accumulation of organic matter (OM), organic carbon (OC) and total nitrogen (TN). We have collected a peat core 4 m long from the free-floating island of Posta Fibreno, a relic mire in Central Italy. This is the thickest accumulation of peat ever found in a free-floating mire, yet it has formed during the past seven centuries and represents the greatest accumulation rates, at both decadal and centennial timescale, of OM (0.63 vs. 0.37 kg/m2/yr), OC (0.28 vs. 0.18 kg/m2/yr) and TN (3.7 vs. 6.1 g/m2/yr) ever reported for coeval peatlands. The anomalously high accretion rates, obtained using14C age dating, were confirmed using210Pb and137Cs: these show that the top 2 m of Sphagnum-peat has accumulated in only ~100 years. As an environmental archive, Posta Fibreno offers a temporal resolution which is 10x greater than any terrestrial peat bog, and promises to provide new insight into environmental changes occurring during the Anthropocene.
authors.affiliation: Department of the Sciences of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Foggia, via Napoli 25, 71122 Foggia, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zaccone
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lobianco
authors.affiliation: Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, 348B South Academic Building, T6G 2H1, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shotyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, viale Fanin 40, 40127 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ciavatta
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Peter G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Appleby
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Food Sciences, University of Molise, via Francesco De Sanctis, 86100 Campobasso, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brugiapaglia
authors.affiliation: Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, via Vitaliano Brancati 60, 00144 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Casella
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Teodoro M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Miano
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil, Plant and Food Sciences, University of Bari "Aldo Moro", via Amendola 165/A, 70126 Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: D'Orazio