Peat lands are areas of land with a naturally accumulated layer of peat. These are formed under waterlogged conditions from carbon rich, dead decaying plant life (IUNC, 2011). They are found in 175 around the world and cover 3% of the global land surface. The UK is globally important in peat land conservation with 15% of UK land covered by peat lands. There are 3 main types of peat lands: blanket bogs, raised bogs and fens. These areas are rich in biodiversity and store carbon as a sink.
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is used to establish the benefits that people gain from different types of ecosystems (MEA, 2005). The benefits are classified into four sections: supporting services, regulating services, provisioning services, and cultural services. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is the most well-known and widely applied classification of ecosystem services.
The supporting services provided to us by peat lands, include primary production, soil formation and nutrient cycling. The sphagnum and mosses photosynthesise; produce soil and both absorb and produce nutrients which are cycled by bacteria in the soil. Peat lands are rich in biodiversity, much of which is unique and specialised. This enhances the need for conservation, as specialised biodiversity find it harder to adapt in the face of change, and are often more sensitive to threats. Furthermore peat lands offer areas of food and fresh water; these are known as the provisioning services. Many of the UKs peat land areas are used for both arable and livestock production. Around 70% of our drinking water comes from upland peat catchment areas. Healthy peat land ecosystems regulate our climate by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, in addition to this they also provide flood regulation and purify our water. The world’s peat lands store twice as much carbon than global forest biomass. Lastly the cultural services we can derive from peat land ecosystems include education and areas of sport and leisure. In addition to this it can be argued that peat land ecosystems are aesthetically pleasing and could potentially be a spiritual place.
These services provide a social and economic connection with the ecological wellbeing of peat lands and help us understand the implications of change on the human population. Ecosystem services can be used as a trigger for management and restoration of the UKs peat lands, as we are able to relate the ecosystem to our own human needs. This is seen as an effective method of conservation. A particular interest is currently focused on carbon storage, biodiversity conservation, water quality and supply, and flood water attenuation.
The UK is currently the world largest emitter of CO2 from damaged peat lands with around 80% of blanket bogs and raised bogs damaged. Therefore we have a large need to restore and converse the peat land we do have. The degradation is due to continuous damage from a number of sources. Over intensive agriculture and grazing strips back the natural flora, without providing enough time for regeneration to occur. This is unsustainable in the long-term. It will not allow the peat and sphagnum mosses to regrow and the peat land will be irreversibly damaged. Drainage is a big problem in the damaging peat, taking away the water, takes away the basis on the ecosystem. 4500 km of ditches have been cut in the Pennines, mainly for water to use in livestock production. Much of the highland peat is being transformed into forestry areas. While some may argue that this not a damaging as some of the other source of degradation, this is still a large area for concern. Much of the forestry plantations are used for timber production and are monoculture, meaning a loss in biodiversity. As already stated peat lands absorb more CO2 than forested areas, therefore there will be a loss of carbon storage. Moreover peat burning for grouse management is damaging problem for peat ecosystems in the highlands. Managed fires, or muir burns, take place between October and April as part of grouse management. They change the peat to heathland.
Restoration projects are being undertaken to restore the UKs peat land. Blocking the drainage ditches and re-flooding the peat, this encourages the development of peat land flora. This process becomes evident fairly quickly, and causes gains in biodiversity in both flora and fauna, and a reduction in carbon loss. A second method of restoration is by the diversification on vegetation (Lunt et al. 2010). A surface layer of spagna and cotton grasses must be established. In order to achieve this all livestock grazing must be removed, managed burning must be stopped, any tree or shrubs must be removed and the moss and spagna layer must be allowed to go. Both of these methods have seen positive results.
Areas of conversation are another way to protect these ecosystems. Large areas of peat land are designated as Special Areas of Protection under the EU Bird Directive and Special Area of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive. These Directives provides conversation by law. Furthermore the Scottish Parliament stated that they are committed to include peat lands in their carbon capture work, implying that peat lands will be protected under this commitment.
Ecosystem services provide a strong case for the restoration of peat lands, as they offer a social and economic connection to the ecological wellbeing of some of our most natural habitats, and can help us understand the effects of human activities on these environments. To investigate your personal carbon footprint have at our tool.
References
Bain et al. (2011) IUCN UK Commission of Inquiry on Peat lands. IUCN UK. ISBN 977-0-9570572-1-0.
Lunt et al. (2010) Peat land Restoration, IUCN UK. Online: www.iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005). Millennium Ecosystem Assessment: Ecosystem and Human Well-Being – Synthesis. Island Press. Washington DC.
