Powerful Peatlands
What are peatlands?
Peatlands are amazingly wild places, home to rare and unusual plants, birds and insects. They are wetland landscapes characterised by waterlogged soils made of dead and decaying plants, called peat. Peat forms at an incredibly slow rate, accumulating on average only 1mm a year – that means it takes 1,000 years for one metre of peat to form! The key component of peat is a moss called sphagnum, which forms multi-coloured carpets across the landscape and breaks down very slowly under the waterlogged conditions.
In the UK we have three main types of peatland habitat: lowland raised bog, blanket bog and fen. Lowland raised bog and blanket bog are both unusual wetlands, as they are entirely fed by rainwater and snow melt rather than ground water. More often found in hilly and mountainous areas, there are some low-lying peatlands remaining, although most have been drained for agriculture.
Sadly over 80% of the UK’s peatlands are damaged – and when damaged, the peat becomes dried and exposed to the elements, and instead of storing and taking up carbon emits it back into the atmosphere as CO2. If just 5% more of our peatlands were to go, the amount of carbon lost would equate to the total annual UK man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore it’s really important that we restore them back to health, so that they keep carbon locked up in the ground.
The big driver for peat damage has been the drainage of peatlands in order to make them more productive for agriculture i.e. less waterlogged and better for growing crops. Other pressures on peatland include the extraction of peat for horticulture. This still continues today and Somerset, sadly, is one of the last places in England where commercial peat digging for compost continues. We are working hard with partners to bring about a complete ban on peat.
Why are peatlands important?
Our UK peatlands store an amazing 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon. When considered globally, this is even more impressive, as they cover just 3% of land area but in that pack 30% of all soil carbon! In a healthy state, they are also beautiful, dramatic landscapes, and provide homes for a range of rare and endangered wildlife.
But there is even more to peatlands, as they help to alleviate flooding, by slowing the flow of water and filter water, making it cleaner when it comes to our water processing plants – and eventually into our taps, with 70% of drinking water coming from upland areas dominated by peat.
Find Out More
There is an estimated 11 million tonnes of carbon stored in Somerset’s lowland peat — but that carbon, and the peatlands themselves, are under threat.
Landscape Partnership Climate Change