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A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia . [ 1 ]
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.
Irish Peatland Conservation Council – Irish charitable organisation; Kerry bog slides – 2008 series of bogslides in County Kerry, Ireland; Kettle bog – Depression or hole in an outwash plain formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters; List of bogs; Paludification – Ecological process of peatland formation
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]
Blanket bog on the Yell, Shetland Islands, with some peat working. Blanket bog or blanket mire, also known as featherbed bog, is an area of peatland, forming where there is a climate of high rainfall and a low level of evapotranspiration, allowing peat to develop not only in wet hollows but over large expanses of undulating ground.
Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or peatland, and is a standard term in Canada and Alaska. The term became common in these areas because it is of Cree origin; maskek (ᒪᐢᑫᐠ) meaning "low-lying marsh". [1]
The Flow Country in the Highlands is home to diverse wildlife and also acts as a massive carbon capture site.
They are a kind of peatland, which store and accumulate vast amounts of carbon as soil organic matter—much more than forests on mineral soil (i.e. non-peatland) contain. Peat formation is a natural carbon sink ; because the decomposition of the organic matter is slower than its production rate, the surplus accumulates as peat.