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Bog Microtopography and the Climatic Sensitivity of Testate Amoeba Communities: Implications for Transfer Function-Based Paleo-Water Table Reconstructions

  • Environmental Microbiology
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Abstract

Although the use of sub-fossil testate amoebae as a proxy for raised bog hydrology in Holocene paleoecological studies is well-established, some detailed aspects of species-environment relationships remain under-researched. One such issue is the effect of bog surface microtopography on the climatic sensitivity of testate amoeba communities. Although it has been suggested that some microforms—especially hummocks—may be less sensitive to climatic forcing than others, this has rarely been objectively tested. To investigate this, subfossil testate amoebae assemblages have been examined in a series of shallow cores collected along a hummock-lawn-hollow transect from a bog in central Ireland and the resulting reconstructed water table records, dated using 210Pb, have been compared with instrumental weather data. Testate amoebae communities in the hollow microform were found to be significantly less diverse than those in the hummock and lawn, and both the hummock and lawn showed statistically significant correlations with instrumental temperature and precipitation data. Therefore, whilst the suggestion that paleoecological investigations should target intermediate bog microforms remains sound, the notion that hummock-based testate amoebae hydrological data are climatically-insensitive is challenged.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge and thank Bord na Móna (Ireland) for access to the study site. Alex Whittle and the two anonymous referees are thanked for their insightful comments that helped improve an earlier version of this manuscript.

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PS was supported by a PhD studentship funded by SAGES (formerly SHES) and QUEST, University of Reading.

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  1. School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AB, UK

    Phil Stastney & Stuart Black

  2. MOLA, Mortimer Wheeler House, 46 Eagle Wharf Road, London, N1 7ED, UK

    Phil Stastney

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Stastney, P., Black, S. Bog Microtopography and the Climatic Sensitivity of Testate Amoeba Communities: Implications for Transfer Function-Based Paleo-Water Table Reconstructions. Microb Ecol 80, 309–321 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-020-01499-5

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