Replicability and variability of the recent macrofossil and proxy-climate record from raised bogs: field stratigraphy and macrofossil data from Bolton Fell Moss and Walton Moss, Cumbria, England
✍ Scribed by Keith Barber; Lisa Dumayne-Peaty; Paul Hughes; Dmitri Mauquoy; Rob Scaife
- Book ID
- 102659639
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 930 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0267-8179
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Replication of results is a basic tenet of science, but in palaeoecology this is very time-consuming and the 'signal' is subject to 'noise'. The derivation of proxy-climate signals from ombrotrophic peat was carried out originally using samples from open peat faces where the stratigraphic relationships could be easily observed. Now that such sections are rare and often degraded there is a need to demonstrate that data can be replicated from core profiles. Ten short cores taken from two adjacent bogs have been analysed for macrofossils and show a coherent series of changes, which are also similar to previous profiles from the same sites. It is concluded that variation between profiles is slight and less than observations of present vegetation mosaics might suggest. Recommendations for a standard approach to fieldwork on raised bogs that emphasises the utility of subfossil pool layers are proposed and the need for a secure chronology is stressed.