Picture 1: Peat!
Picture 2: Sphagnum moss, a common habitat for testate amoebae
So, today I was doing some leisurely reading, and I thought it was pretty enlightening and that others might just enjoy some enlightenment as well. On to today's main topic: peatlands and testate amoebae analysis! Bear with me.
To begin, peat is formed when organic productivity is occurring more than decay. So, this organic matter (such as moss, leaves, etc.) is thus stored since it is not decomposing fast enough. This can build up over time storing many layers of peat - and the deeper the peat layer is the older that peat is! Peat tends to be present only in certain geographical locations such as northerly latitudes because once temperature increases, decomposition also increases. And since decomposition releases methane, this adds to global climate change...thus making temperatures warm ever further and peatlands disappear more and on the cycle goes. This is what really gets me excited about climate change issues, these positive feedback cycles. Everything fits together into this crazy situation and every little detail becomes important. And these peatlands that store vast amounts of carbon are also an amazing wealth of knowledge! Onto that...
Peatlands do not experience water runoff such as farmlands or city streets. So the only thing that affects the water table in peat is precipitation and evapotranspiration. This makes them amazing indicators for climate change! Becaaause there are these little types of protozoans called testate amoebae. Each type of testate amoebae lives in a particular type of wet zone, so a certain type being present in a certain layer of peat indicates the climate for that given time. Cool eh?! So you can tell the amount of water that was present at that time, pH, nutrients, and possibly other factors such as anthropological disturbance! According to this guy Warner (cited at end) "Testate amoebae can be 'early warning' indicators of environmental change." BAM!
I am stoked to start some research
Warner, B. G., T. Asada, and N. P. Quinn. 2007. Seasonal influences on the ecology of testate amoebae (Protozoa) in a small Sphagnum peatland in Southern Ontario, Canada. Microbial Ecology 54:91–100. CrossRef, PubMed
...I'll post some of the other articles later.
Some notes:
ReplyDeleteevapotranspiration occurs when the water contained in plants, soil and other surfaces become water vapor.
Testate amoebae are used to indicate past climate patterns. These patterns can be compared to present day climate situations. This is how they can be used as indicators; because they are excellent climatological records of the past