Artificial Incubation Experiment of Thawed Peat in Permafrost Bogs

Vulnerability of peat plateaus to global warming was analyzed in northeastern European Russia. A laboratory experiment of peat artificial incubation was carried out to analyze the organic carbon sustainability of peat plateaus to decomposition. The mineralization rate of peat organic carbon and the CO2 and CH4 emissions were calculated under artificial aerobic and anaerobic conditions at a temperature of +4°C during the incubation for 1300 days in mixed peat samples of a peat plateau excavated from active (AL), transitional (TL) and permafrost (PL) layers. The δ13C and δ15N isotopes and C/N, O/C, and H/C ratios were determined as indicators of changes in the decomposition rate of organic carbon. The study shows that by the 1300th day of the experiment under aerobic conditions, the total CO2 production released per 1 g of carbon in the analyzed sample was 10.24–37.4 mg C g-1 (on average 25.76 mg C g-1), while under anaerobic conditions, – only 2.1–3.38 mgC g-1 (average 3.15 mgC g-1). CH4 emission was detected only in the transition layer and in extremely small quantities. The incubation experiment results support the hypothesis that peat plateaus are resilient, especially under anaerobic conditions, regardless of ongoing climate warming.