Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. Sphagnum moss, also called peat moss, is one of the most common components in peat, although many other plants can contribute. The biological features of sphagnum mosses act to create a habitat aiding peat formation, a phenomenon termed 'habitat manipulation'. Soils consisting primarily of peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding or stagnant water obstructs the flow of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing the rate of decomposition. Peat properties such as organic matter content and saturated hydraulic conductivity can exhibit high spatial heterogeneity.
A fen is a type of peat-accumulating wetland fed by mineral-rich ground or surface water. It is one of the main types of wetlands along with marshes, swamps, and bogs. Bogs and fens, both peat-forming ecosystems, are also known as mires. The unique water chemistry of fens is a result of the ground or surface water input. Typically, this input results in higher mineral concentrations and a more basic pH than found in bogs. As peat accumulates in a fen, groundwater input can be reduced or cut off, making the fen ombrotrophic rather than minerotrophic. In this way, fens can become more acidic and transition to bogs over time.
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials – often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; alkaline mires are called fens. A bayhead is another type of bog found in the forest of the Gulf Coast states in the United States. They are often covered in heath or heather shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink.
Sphagnum is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss. Accumulations of Sphagnum can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; plants may hold 16 to 26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on the species. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions.
Llyn Fanod is an upland lake situated between Penuwch and Bontnewydd in Ceredigion, Wales. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest partly owned by the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. Public access is via a bridlepath from the road. It is a mesotrophic lake located in the headwaters of the River Aeron, whose low nutrient waters are home to a number of locally rare water plants. Waterfowl and passing sea birds can be seen on the lake as can dragonflies, damselflies, and caddis flies in the summer.
Chacamarca Historic Sanctuary, is a historical site in Junín Province, Junín, Peru. The sanctuary protects the site of the Battle of Junín and archaeological remains of the Pumpush culture.
The puna grassland ecoregion, of the montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru, but extends south, across Chile, Bolivia, and western northwest Argentina. The term puna encompasses diverse ecosystems of the high Central Andes above 3200–3400 m.
Cors Caron is a raised bog in Ceredigion, Wales. Cors is the Welsh word for "bog". Cors Caron covers an area of approximately 349 hectares. Cors Caron represents the most intact surviving example of a raised bog landscape in the United Kingdom. About 44 different species groups inhabit the area including various land and aquatic plants, fish, insects, crustaceans, lichen, fungi, terrestrial mammals and birds.
The Central Andean dry puna (NT1001) is an ecoregion in the montane grasslands and shrublands biome, located in the Andean Altiplano in South America. It is a part of the Puna grassland.
Aulacomnium palustre, the bog groove-moss or ribbed bog moss, is a moss that is nearly cosmopolitan in distribution. It occurs in North America, Hispaniola, Venezuela, Eurasia, and New Zealand. In North America, it occurs across southern arctic, subboreal, and boreal regions from Alaska and British Columbia to Greenland and Quebec. Documentation of ribbed bog moss's distribution in the contiguous United States is probably incomplete. It is reported sporadically south to Washington, Wyoming, Georgia, and Virginia.
The Central Andean wet puna is a montane grasslands and shrublands ecoregion in the Andes of Peru and Bolivia.
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. Like coral reefs, peatlands are unusual landforms that derive mostly from biological rather than physical processes, and can take on characteristic shapes and surface patterning.
Asana River is a waterway in the Moquegua Region of southern Peru. It is one of the tributaries of the Osmore River. The Asana archaeological site, occupied over the course of 8,000 years, is situated in a basin on the river's north bank. The Quellaveco mining project sought to divert the Asana for extractive waste material placement in its copper mining operations.
Bewick and Beanley Moors is the name given to a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in north Northumberland, in the north-east of England. The moors are asserted to be of national importance by Natural England for the extent, quality and diversity of upland types including heaths, fens, wet grassland, flushes, mires and blanket bogs, together creating an extensive mosaic habitat supporting an exceptional community of amphibians. The moors are important, too, for their relict juniper woodland and scrub.
Trichophorum cespitosum, commonly known as deergrass or tufted bulrush, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family. It was originally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1753 as Scirpus cespitosus, but was transferred to the genus Trichophorum by the Swedish botanist Carl Johan Hartman in 1849, becoming Trichophorum cespitosum.
The Northern Andean páramo (NT1006) is an ecoregion containing páramo vegetation above the treeline in the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador. In the past, when the climate was cooler, the treeline and the páramo units were lower and the units were connected. During the present warmer Holocene epoch the páramos have migrated uphill, shrinking and becoming isolated. They contain many rare or endangered species, some of them restricted to a narrow area of one mountain or mountain range. The ecoregion is relatively well preserved, but faces threats from over-grazing and farming.
Paludiculture is wet agriculture and forestry on peatlands. Paludiculture combines the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from drained peatlands through rewetting with continued land use and biomass production under wet conditions. “Paludi” comes from the Latin “palus” meaning “swamp, morass” and "paludiculture" as a concept was developed at Greifswald University. Paludiculture is a sustainable alternative to drainage-based agriculture, intended to maintain carbon storage in peatlands. This differentiates paludiculture from agriculture like rice paddies, which involve draining, and therefore degrading wetlands.
Garron Plateau ASSI is a 4652.18-hectare area of special scientific interest in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Upland blanket bogs cover basalt rocks, and flushing by mineral-enriched water has resulted in the formation of alkaline fen vegetation. There are small areas of standing and running water but bogs, marshes, water fringed vegetation and fens cover 70% of the area. The remainder is heath and scrubland, humid grassland and mesophile grassland.
Bofedales, known in some parts of Peru as oconales, are a type of wetland found in the Andes. They are a feature in the land use and ecology of high Andean ecosystems. They form in flat areas around ponds or streams and may be permanent or seasonal, and they can be man made or natural. Bofedales are associated with organic material in the soil and their green colour often contrasts with that of the drier surrounding landscape.
