SPECIAL PUBLICATION NO. 27 17

Table 1. Estimated rates of peat accumulation in Florida.


Author
Davis
(1946, p. 74)






Kuehn
(1980, p. 49)




Kuehn
(1980, p. 49)



Stephens
(1974, p. 356)


 Estimated Rate
5.2 in./100 years







4.24 in./100 years




3.64 in./100 years




3 in./100 years


communities which thrive in different environments. In addition, peat
has been lost by fire during various prehistoric dry periods (Cohen,
1974). Failure to recognize evidence of fire could alter the rate at which
peat is calculated to accumulate.

 Geologic Settings of Peat Accumulation in Florida

 The conditions under which peat can occur in Florida are highly varia-
ble. While geologic and hydrologic relations of peat to its neighboring
materials have been thoroughly documented in the Everglades of south
Florida, numerous small deposits in the central peninsula remain
unmapped. Davis (1946, p. 114), considered the peat deposits of Florida
as falling into a number of groups based on their locations. These groups
include: 1) coastal associations, including marshes and mangrove
swamps, lagoons and estuaries as well as depressions among dunes; 2)
large, nearly flat, poorly-drained areas as exemplified by the Everglades
illustrated in Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7; 3) river-valley marshes such as the
marsh adjacent to the St. Johns River; 4) swamps of the flatland region
(Figure 8); 5) marshes bordering lakes and ponds (Figure 9); 6) season-
ally flooded shallow depressions; 7) lake bottom deposits (Figure 10); 8)
peat layers buried beneath other strata (Figure 11).
 Cohen and Spackman (1977) have devised a more comprehensive
classification of south Florida's phytogenic (of plant origin) sediments


 Comments
This rate is computed based on the amount of
SiO2 fixed by a standing crop of sawgrass from
the Everglades. It is widely quoted, but a recent
analysis of the method (Gleason, et al., 1974)
indicates that certain of the assumptions
necessary to the calculation must be in error.
This difficulty is discussed more completely in
the accompanying text.

This rate was computed from a core which
penetrated peat formed alternately in marine,
brackish and fresh water environments from
southwest Florida. The computations were
based on radiocarbon ages.

This rate was computed for a single type of
peat, red mangrove (Rhizophora), from
southwest Florida using measured thickness
and radiometric ages.

Rates were computed from the Everglades
using radiocarbon ages which were not
specifically referenced in the text.