Are living peatland trees a reliable natural archive for climate reconstruction?

Abstract

Peatland ecosystems are an important archive of paleoclimatic information. Within this context, tree-ring data from trees growing in such ecosystems are extremely valuable resources, and subfossil trees from peat bogs have been widely employed in dendroclimatological studies. However, there are still gaps in our understanding of the relationships among tree growth, peatland hydrology and climate factors. Here, we summarize the principal studies on living peatland trees, with a particular focus on their use as a source of information on past climatic conditions. We discuss the main factors influencing tree growth in this environment, whether it is the local hydrological cycle or climate. We put a particular focus on the reliability of the climate signal recorded by living peatland trees, comparing it with that found in subfossil trees. Finally, we discuss the relevance of quantitative wood anatomy in the context of peatland ecosystems research.