Peatland carbon may enter long‐term storage in sedimentary basins preserved as either coal or lignite. The time required to account for the carbon in 1–10 m thick coal seams must represent 10⁵–10⁶ years, an order of magnitude more than previously assumed. To understand the process by which this happens requires extrapolation of our understanding of peatland carbon accumulation over timescales that greatly exceed those of Holocene peat. We analyze the consequences of extrapolating peat growth to periods of 10⁶ years. We deduce that that key to sustained peat growth are hydrologic landscapes that can maintain a saturated peat body above the level of clastic deposition. Contrary to current stratigraphic frameworks, we conclude that the generation of accommodation space at low rates of 0.1–0.2 mm/yr can adequately accommodate thick peat accumulation over periods >10⁵ years. However, generation of accommodation space at rates >0.5 mm/yr cannot. The low rates that permit accommodation of thick peat are typical of the rates of subsidence in specific tectonic settings, particularly foreland basins, and this has implications for our understanding of the links between terrestrial carbon burial, tectonics and the carbon cycle. The long‐term stability of extensive peatland required to form coal also requires sediment bypass, modifying basin wide sediment transport and deposition. Limits to peatland growth under very low accommodation rates must exist but the relative importance of the limiting process is not understood. Finally, we discuss the consequences of these factors for predicting the future of the peatland carbon reservoir.

中文翻译：

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沉积盆地中泥炭地的时间，水文景观和长期储存

泥炭地碳可能长期保存在以煤炭或褐煤保存的沉积盆地中。解释1–10 m厚煤层中的碳所需的时间必须代表10 ⁵ –10 ⁶ 年，比以前的假设高出一个数量级。要了解这种情况发生的过程，需要对我们对泥炭地碳积累的理解进行推断，而这些时间尺度将大大超过全新世泥炭。我们分析了将泥炭生长推断为10 ^6的结果 年。我们推断，泥炭持续增长的关键是水文景观，可以使饱和泥炭体保持在碎屑沉积水平以上。与当前的地层学框架相反，我们得出的结论是，以0.1-0.2 mm / yr的低速率产生的适应空间可以充分适应10到⁵ 年以上的厚泥炭堆积。但是，以> 0.5的速率生成住宿空间 毫米/年不能。在特定的构造环境中，特别是在前陆盆地中，低速允许厚泥炭的沉降率是典型的沉降速度，这对我们对陆地碳埋藏，构造学和碳循环之间联系的理解具有影响。形成煤炭所需的广阔泥炭地的长期稳定性还要求泥沙绕开，从而改变整个盆地的泥沙输送和沉积。在非常低的适应率下必须存在泥炭地生长的限制，但限制过程的相对重要性尚不明确。最后，我们讨论了这些因素对预测泥炭地碳库未来的影响。