ABSTRACT
A major part of the biosphere's carbon can be found in mires; estimates range up to 12 percent. Mires play a key role in the temperate belt of the Northern Hemisphere, which contains about 95 percent of the world's surveyed peat reserves. The rate of peat accumulation varies somewhat, but it is the basis for estimating the deposition of carbon in mires. Such a study can help estimate current peat accumulation rates more accurately and suggest trends for the future. For the reasons researchers analyzed the dynamics of peat accumulation, mainly during the last 3000 years, using a selection of mires studied in Russia and adjacent countries. The late Holocene cooling slowed peat accumulation as a whole. The mean value of peat accumulation rate among the profiles for the Subatlantic period of the Holocene differs among the profiles under consideration by 15 times. There is a decrease in peat accumulation rate from the Atlantic to the Subboreal and then to the Subatlantic period.
