Climate and water-table levels regulate peat accumulation rates across Europe

PLOS One | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327422 July 23, 2025 1 / 16 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Swindles GT, Mullan DJ, Brannigan NT, Fewster RE, Sim TG, Gallego-Sala A, et al. (2025) Climate and water-table levels regulate peat accumulation rates across Europe. PLoS One 20(7): e0327422. https://doi.org/10.1371/ journal.pone.0327422 Editor: John Toland Van Stan II, Georgia Southern University, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Received: October 25, 2024 Accepted: June 13, 2025 Published: July 23, 2025 Peer Review History: PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process; therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. The editorial history of this article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0327422 Copyright: © 2025 Swindles et al . This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, RESEARCH ARTICLE Climate and water-table levels regulate peat accumulation rates across Europe Graeme T. Swindles 1,2*, Donal J. Mullan3, Neil T. Brannigan4, Richard E. Fewster 1, Thomas G. Sim5, Angela Gallego-Sala6, Maarten Blaauw 7, Mariusz Lamentowicz8, Vincent E.J. Jassey9, Katarzyna Marcisz 8, Sophie M. Green3, Thomas P. Roland6, Julie Loisel10, Matthew J. Amesbury11, Antony Blundell12, Frank M. Chambers13, Dan J. Charman14, Callum R.C. Evans3, Angelica Feurdean15,16, Jennifer M. Galloway17, Mariusz Gałka18, Edgar Karofeld19, Evelyn M. Keaveney1, Atte Korhola20,

Łukasz Lamentowicz8, Peter Langdon21, Dmitri Mauquoy22, Michelle M. McKeown23, Edward A. D. Mitchell24,25, Gill Plunkett26, Helen M. Roe3, T. Edward Turner27, Ülle Sillasoo28, Minna Väliranta29, Marjolein van der Linden30, Barry Warner31 1 Geography and 14Chrono Centre, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom, 2 Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre and Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 3 Geography, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom, 4 School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Ulster University, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, 5 Forest Research, Northern Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian, United Kingdom, 6 Geography, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom, 7 Archaeology and Palaeoecology and 14Chrono Centre, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom, 8 Climate Change Ecology Research Unit, Faculty of Geographical and Geological Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland, 9 Université de Toulouse, Toulouse INP, CNRS, IRD, CRBE, Toulouse, France, 10 Department of Geography, University of Nevada in Reno, Reno, Nevada, United States of America, 11 Research Services, University of Exeter, Innovation Centre Phase 2, Exeter, United Kingdom, 12 School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom, 13 Centre for Environmental

Change and Quaternary Research, School of Natural and Social Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, 14 Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom, 15 Goethe University, Institute of Physical Geography, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 Department of Geology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 17 Geological Survey of Canada/Commission géologique du Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 18 Department of Biogeography, Paleoecology and Nature Conservation, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland, 19 Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia, 20 Environmental Change Research Unit, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 21 School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom, 22 School of Geosciences, The University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, 23 Department of Geography and Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, 24 Laboratory of Soil Biodiversity, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 25 Jardin Botanique de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 26 Archaeology and Palaeoecology, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom, 27 Forestry and Land Scotland, South Region, Dumfries, United Kingdom, 28 Gaia School in Tallinn, Tallinn, Estonia, 29 Environmental Change Research Unit, Ecosystems and

environment research programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 30 BIAX Consult, Zaandam, the Netherlands, 31 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada * g.swindles@qub.ac.uk