A regime shift from erosion to carbon accumulation in a temperate northern peatland

Peatlands are globally important ecosystems but many are degraded and some are eroding. However, some degraded peatlands are undergoing apparently spontaneous recovery, with switches from erosion to renewed carbon accumulation—a type of ecological regime shift. We used a palaeoecological approach to investigate and help understand such a switch in a blanket peatland in North Wales, UK. Our data show: (a) a rapid accumulation of new peat after the switch from the eroding state, with between 5.2 and 10.6 kg m-2 carbon accumulating since the beginning of the recovery which occurred between the late 1800s and early to mid‐1900s CE, with an average carbon accumulation rate in the new peat between 46 and 121 g C m−2 year−1; (b) three main successional pathways in peat‐forming vegetation; and (c) hydrological changes with an increase to moderately high water‐tables after the switch that promoted new carbon accumulation as well as protecting vulnerable old carbon. External factors, including ch...