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/m(2)/yr), OC (0.28 vs. 0.18 kg/m(2)/yr) and TN (3.7 vs. 6.1 g/m(2)/yr) ever reported for coeval peatlands. The anomalously high accretion rates, obtained using (14)C age dating, were confirmed using (210)Pb and (137)Cs: 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.

Autore Pugliese

• Zaccone Claudio

Tutti gli autori

• Zaccone C. , Lobianco D. , Shotyk W. , Ciavatta C. , Appleby P. G. , Brugiapaglia E. , Casella L. , Miano T. M. , D'Orazio V.

Titolo volume/Rivista

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Anno di pubblicazione

2017

ISSN

2045-2322

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

3

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

3

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile