Lignin phenol data for solid phase peat cores collected from the Alligator River and Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuges
Dates
Publication Date
2019-08-30
Start Date
2015-03
End Date
2015-03
Citation
Stricker, C.A., 2019, Lignin phenol data for solid phase peat cores collected from the Alligator River and Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuges: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9EFGR4F.
Summary
This dataset includes lignin phenol monomer concentrations normalized to 100 mg of organic carbon. These analyses were conducted on select intervals from peat cores collected at the Alligator River (AR) and Great Dismal Swamp (GDS) National Wildlife Refuges in North Carolina and Virginia/North Carolina, USA, respectively. The eight lignin phenol monomers provide unique proxy information on the source, character, and state of decomposition of soil organic matter. Peat cores from the GDS were collected from three main forest communities; pocosin (POC; dominated by pond pine in the canopy and shrubs), Atlantic white cedar (AWC: called CDR to differentiate from the AR cores), and red maple-black gum (MPL). The GDS has been subject to intensive [...]
Summary
This dataset includes lignin phenol monomer concentrations normalized to 100 mg of organic carbon. These analyses were conducted on select intervals from peat cores collected at the Alligator River (AR) and Great Dismal Swamp (GDS) National Wildlife Refuges in North Carolina and Virginia/North Carolina, USA, respectively. The eight lignin phenol monomers provide unique proxy information on the source, character, and state of decomposition of soil organic matter. Peat cores from the GDS were collected from three main forest communities; pocosin (POC; dominated by pond pine in the canopy and shrubs), Atlantic white cedar (AWC: called CDR to differentiate from the AR cores), and red maple-black gum (MPL). The GDS has been subject to intensive drainage and selective removal of AWC over the last two centuries. In contrast, the AR site represents an intact, undrained stand of AWC, a coastal plain wetland ecotype that has become increasingly rare on the east coast of the U.S. The contrast enabled us to assess the carbon chemistry of GDS peats, including the decomposition status as a result of these long-term disturbances. There are two files in this dataset: 1) a comma delimited machine-readable file (*.csv) that represents the data dictionary, and 2) a comma delimited machine-readable file (*.csv) containing the data.
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SE Peatlands_Lignin Phenols.xml Original FGDC Metadata
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22.3 KB
application/fgdc+xml
SE Peatlands_Lignin Monomers_data.csv
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text/csv
Related External Resources
Type: Related Primary Publication
Stricker, C.A., Drexler, J.Z., Thorn, K.A., Duberstein, J.A., and Rossman, S., 2019, Carbon chemistry of intact versus chronically drained peatlands in the southeastern USA: Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
The GDS is a large, shrub- and tree-dominated peatland in the southeastern U.S., where lowering of the water table seasonally or during a moderate drought does not typically result in increased decomposition of the carbon sink. Such resistance of the peat to decay has been attributed to the unusually high polyphenol content of the forest cover. However, since colonial times the GDS has been subject to logging and drainage via an extensive ditch network. Drainage over a period of ~200 years has resulted in conditions which are highly comparable to that of a chronic, severe drought. Further, selective logging of AWC had led to major changes in plant community composition whereby formerly gymnosperm (AWC) dominated areas are now dominated by angiosperms (red maple-black gum). The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of long-term drainage and AWC loss on the carbon chemistry of GDS peats. Results indicate that GDS peats had lower lignin contents, particularly at depth, higher syringyl group phenols in the surface layers, consistent with a transition to angiosperms, and were more decomposed, particularly at depth, and that this occurred under aerobic conditions. These data indicate that long-term drainage has accelerated the decomposition of peat at the GDS, reducing the capacity and stability of the carbon sink.
