Scaling Behavior of Peat Properties during the Holocene: A Case Study from Central European Russia

A better understanding of past climate change is vital to our ability to predict possible future environmental dynamics. This study attempts to investigate the dynamic features of the temporal variability of peat humification, water table depth and air temperature by analyzing palaeoecological data from the Valdai Uplands region (Central European Russia). The regression analysis revealed the presence of a periodicity of about 6000 years in the reconstructed peat humification timeseries. Nonlinear analysis showed that humification time variability, water table depth and air temperature exhibit persistent long-range correlations of 1/f type. This indicates that a fluctuation in these variables in the past is very likely to be followed by a similar one in the future, but is magnified by 1/f power-law. In addition, it dictates that humification, water table depth and temperature are key parameters of a system that implies the existence of a special structure, such as self-organized criticality, operating close to a minimum stability configuration, and achieves it without any fine adjustment by external forcing. These conclusions point to new avenues for modeling future ecosystem disturbances and, in particular, for predicting relevant extreme events.