RADIOCARBON DATING HISTOSOLS IN THE PEATLANDS OF CANAAN VALLEY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, WEST VIRGINIA

Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge (CVNWR) encompasses the majority of West Virginia’s largest wetland complex, including five mapped peatlands totaling 187 hectares, which Cameron (1970) documented as the most voluminous central Appalachian peat deposits south of the glacial limit. Canaan Valley is an oval shaped, relatively high altitude (980 m), breached, double-plunging anticlinal valley in the Allegheny Mountains section of the Appalachian Plateaus. Peat thickness ranges from 0.4 to 3.0 m; total peat thickness throughout most of the peatlands is less than 2 m. Nearly 100 soil profile descriptions were used to characterize these yet unclassified soils with two separate taxonomic classifications of Histosols anticipated; Haplosaprist and Haplohemist. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided funding for radiocarbon dating of 50 samples in conjunction with the Radiocarbon Collaborative to establish a baseline study of Canaan Valley peat with a robust radiocarbon chronology, including peat accumulation rates. Peat samples were analyzed for ¹⁴C abundance and corrected for mass-dependent fractionation using measured δ¹³C values. Calibrated basal peat dates among the five mapped peatlands indicate a widespread time frame for the onset of peat genesis, ranging from 18,000 BP to 4,000 BP. Preliminary results indicate highly variable peat accumulation rates. Remapping the spatial distribution of these Histosols, coupled with soil profile descriptions and radiocarbon dates, have illustrated the development pattern for peatlands in this Appalachian highland valley. CVNWR peatlands developed in shallow bedrock “bowl-like” depressions as open bodies of water, and terrestrialized into mounded typical raised peatlands.