ABSTRACT

Estimates of surface peat accumulation rates in wetlands on plateaus without direct sediment supply from rivers have been scarcely reported. However, assessing the potential of peatlands as global carbon sinks is essential to understand the global carbon cycle. Here, we employed multiple isotopes to investigate surface peat accumulation on a plateau in eastern Hokkaido, Japan. Our results suggest that the constant rate of the supply model, corrected for the ¹⁴C bomb peak, can provide accurate accumulation rate estimates. The top 13 cm of the peat layer formed over the last 70 years, with mean accumulation rates of 8.1 ± 3.2 and 1.3 ± 0.5 mm yr⁻¹ in the acrotelm and catotelm, respectively. Comparisons with a previously published study suggest that peat accumulation rates were constant within the evaluated study area, when external factors were excluded. Additionally, our estimated carbon accumulation rates in the acrotelm and catotelm were 110 ± 37 and 33 ± 9 gC m^-2 yr^-1, respectively, providing a valuable example of short-term carbon accumulation rate estimations in the East Asian monsoon region.