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A water table near the peat surface gives the opportunity for anaerobic microorganisms to flourish. Methanogens are strictly anaerobic organisms and produce methane from organic matter in anoxic conditions below the water table level, while some of that methane is oxidised by methanotrophs above the water table level.
The peatland ecosystem covers 3.7 million square kilometres (1.4 million square miles) [12] and is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet, [2] [13] because peatland plants capture carbon dioxide (CO 2) naturally released from the peat, maintaining an equilibrium.
The goals of peatland restoration in hydrological terms are primarily to improve the quality and regulate the quantity of water. A peatland as an intact ecosystem is a natural water purifier, it filters and stores organic substances, metals or other toxic matter and retains nutrients. [8]
Around 1500 km 2 of the Flow Country is protected as both a Special Protection Area and Special Area of Conservation under the name Caithness and Sutherland Peatlands. [10] [11] The Flow Country was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024. It is one of three World Heritage natural landscapes in the United Kingdom.
A simplified definition of wetland is "an area of land that is usually saturated with water". [14] More precisely, wetlands are areas where "water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season". [15]
About 62% of the world's tropical peat lands occur in the Indomalayan realm (80% in Indonesia, 11% in Malaysia, 6% in Papua New Guinea, and pockets in Brunei, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Thailand). [6] [7] Peat in Indonesia is distributed over three islands, Sumatra (8.3 million ha), Kalimantan (6.3 million ha) and Papua (4.6 million ha).
Earth's surface is dominated by the ocean, which forms 75% of Earth's surface.. An ocean world, ocean planet or water world is a type of planet or natural satellite that contains a substantial amount of water in the form of oceans, as part of its hydrosphere, either beneath the surface, as subsurface oceans, or on the surface, potentially submerging all dry land.
Books about or featuring the environment as a prominent theme have proliferated especially since the middle of the twentieth century. The rise of environmental science , which has encouraged interdisciplinary approaches to studying the environment, and the environmental movement , which has increased public and political awareness of humanity's ...