Ratcliffe, Joshua LeeAndersen, RoxaneAnderson, RussellNewton, AnthonyCampbell, David I.Mauquoy, DmitriPayne, Richard2017-10-0320172017-10-032017Ratcliffe, J., Andersen, R., Anderson, R., Newton, A., Campbell, D., Mauquoy, D., & Payne, R. (2017). Contemporary carbon fluxes do not reflect the long-term carbon balance for an Atlantic blanket bog. The Holocene. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836177156890959-6836https://hdl.handle.net/10289/11368Peatlands are one of the largest terrestrial stores of carbon. Carbon exchange in peatlands is often assessed solely by measurement of contemporary fluxes; however, these fluxes frequently indicate a much stronger sink strength than that measured by the rate of C accumulation in the peat profile over longer timescales. Here we compare profile-based measurements of C accumulation with the published net ecosystem C balance for the largest peatland area in Britain, the Flow Country of northern Scotland. We estimate the long-term rate of C accumulation to be 15.4 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹ for a site where a recent eddy covariance study has suggested contemporary C uptake more than six times greater (99.37 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹). Our estimate is supported by two further long-term C accumulation records from nearby sites which give comparable results. We demonstrate that a strong contemporary C sink strength may not equate to a strong long-term sink and explore reasons for this disparity. We recommend that contemporary C sequestration should be viewed in the context of the long-term ecological drivers, such as fires, ecohydrological feedbacks and the changing quality of litter inputs.application/pdfenThis is an author’s accepted version of an article published in the journal: The Holocene. © The Author(s) 2017.Core scanningFlow countryITRAXLORCAPeatScotlandTephrochronologyJournal Article10.1177/09596836177156891477-0911