Peatlands are major terrestrial soil carbon stores, and open mires in boreal landscapes hold a considerable fraction of the global peat carbon. Despite decades of study, large-scale spatiotemporal analyses of mire arrangement have been scarce, which has limited our ability to scale-up mire properties, such as carbon accumulation to the landscape level. Here, we use a land-uplift mire chronosequence in northern Sweden spanning 9,000 years to quantify controls on mire distribution patterns. Our objectives include assessing changes in the spatial arrangement of mires with land surface age, and understanding modifications by upland hydrotopography. Characterizing over 3,000 mires along a 30 km transect, we found that the time since land emergence from the sea was the dominant control over mire coverage, especially for the establishment of large mire complexes. Mires at the youngest end of the chronosequence were small with heterogenous morphometry (shape, slope, and catchment-to-mire areal ratios), while mires on the oldest surfaces were variable in size, but included larger mires with more complex shapes and smaller catchment-to-mire ratios. In general, complex topography fragmented mires by constraining the lateral expansion, resulting in a greater number of mires, but reduced total mire area regardless of landscape age. Mires in this study area occurred on slopes up to 4%, indicating a hydrological boundary to peatland expansion under local climatic conditions. The consistency in mire responses to spatiotemporal controls illustrates how temporal limitation in peat initiation and accumulation, and topographic constraints to mire expansion together have shaped present day mire distribution patterns.

中文翻译：

---

北部寒带景观中的地形和时间形状泥沼形态测量和大范围泥沼分布模式

泥炭地是主要的陆地土壤碳库，北方地区的露天泥炭地储存着全球泥炭碳的相当一部分。尽管进行了数十年的研究，但对沼泽排列的大规模时空分析仍然很少，这限制了我们扩大沼泽特性（例如碳积累到景观水平）的能力。在这里，我们使用瑞典北部 9,000 年的土地隆起泥沼年代序列来量化对泥沼分布模式的控制。我们的目标包括评估泥沼空间排列随陆地表面年龄的变化，并了解高地水文地形的变化。通过对 30 公里样带上 3,000 多个泥沼的特征分析，我们发现陆地从海中出现以来的时间是对泥沼覆盖范围的主要控制，特别是对于大型泥沼复合体的建立。时间序列最年轻端的泥沼较小，形态不均匀（形状、坡度和流域与泥沼面积比），而最古老表面的泥沼大小可变，但包括形状更复杂和流域更小的较大泥沼与米尔的比率。一般来说，复杂的地形通过限制横向扩展来破碎沼泽，导致沼泽数量增加，但无论景观年龄如何，沼泽总面积都会减少。该研究区域的泥沼发生在坡度高达 4% 的地方，表明当地气候条件下泥炭地扩张的水文边界。泥炭对时空控制的响应的一致性说明了泥炭生成和积累的时间限制以及泥炭扩展的地形限制如何共同塑造了当今泥炭的分布模式。