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A lump of peat Peat stacks in Südmoslesfehn (district of Oldenburg, Germany) in 2013 Peat gatherers at Westhay, Somerset Levels in 1905 Peat extraction in East Frisia, Germany. Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs.
This acts to mitigate carbon release in the short term before the new growth of vegetation provides a new source of organic litter to fuel the peat formation in the long term. [3] UNEP is supporting peatland restoration in Indonesia. [64] Peat extraction is forbidden in Chile since April 2024. [65]
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]
The factor geomorphology (and also topography) creates spatial diversity in the hydrological characteristics of the landscape. The flat topography (and thus low slopes) in the two major peatlands in the world, located in the West Siberian Plain and in the Hudson/James Bay Lowlands of Canada respectively, illustrate the significance of this factor.
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. Their stability has important implications for climate change ; they are among the largest near-surface reserves of terrestrial organic carbon. [ 2 ]
Tropical peat is a type of histosol that is found in tropical latitudes, including South East Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. [2] Tropical peat mostly consists of dead organic matter from trees instead of spaghnum which are commonly found in temperate peat. [ 3 ]
They found that peat moss can be grown on black peat. [39] In Sedelsberg, researchers found cultivating Sphagnum on black peat to be "expensive and time-consuming". Researchers at the Südfeld project in 2002 observed a small increase in peat moss, and increasing reeds, cattails, and willows. [ 38 ]
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