Ten fascinating facts about bogs

It’s World Bog Day! On Sunday 28th of July we celebrate the brilliance of bogs! Read on to find out more about our amazing peatlands and why we need to protect them.

1. Peatlands have phenomenal carbon storage abilities - they cover just 3% of the world’s surface, yet hold nearly 30% of the soil carbon. Across the globe, peatlands store at least 550 gigatonnes of carbon, which is more than twice the carbon stored in all the world’s forests!

2. Peatlands can be found across every continent, in 180 countries. There are mountain peatlands in the Himalayas and the Andes, vast Arctic permafrost peatlands, tropical peatlands in southeast Asia and naturally forested peatlands in Europe.

3. Peat, which is made up of dead and decaying plants, forms incredibly slowly, taking one year to form a 1mm layer and a thousand years to form 1m. If a peatland is healthy, it will be covered with a dense layer of vegetation, mainly sphagnum mosses, and in the wet, acidic conditions below, the plant matter becomes ‘pickled’, and only semi-decomposes. This semi-decomposed plant matter gets compressed and over time, becomes peat.

4. Peatlands perform amazing ecosystem services to our drinking water. Water sourced from a peatland habitat is of naturally high quality and requires straightforward treatment at a water treatment plant. However, degraded peatland has a negative effect on water quality, as silt and organic material is washed off into the flow, which then needs to be removed through complex, costly, and energy-intensive water treatment processes.

5. Peatland vegetation’s ability to hold large amounts of water slows the flow of heavy rainfall and is incredibly important in helping prevent flooding of nearby towns and villages.

6. Sadly, the state of peatlands is not great. 25% of peatlands across the globe have been destroyed, and in the UK at least 80% are damaged, despite being recognised as being of international importance under EU legislation. 

7. UK peatlands are home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including rare orchids, wildflowers and grasses, the Marsh Fritillary butterfly, lizards and red deer. They also provide a vital safe space for birds such as Golden Plover, Curlew and Hen Harrier to breed.

8. The astonishing ability of peatland to preserve organic matter undamaged can change our understanding of history. An entire agricultural community, calculated to be 5,500 years old, was found under a bog in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, and the discovery enlightened us as to how communities were structured five millennia ago.

9. There have been over 270 finds of ‘bog butter’ – large pats of butter wrapped in wooden containers or animal bladders – but the phenomenon never ceases to amaze! Archaeologists have eaten bog butter up to 3,000 years old and lived to tell the tale!

10. The haunting and often desolate atmosphere of peatlands has led to the creation of much bog folklore. Tales have long been told of mischievous peat bog faeries, also known as bog sprites or will-o’-the-wisps, who would sometimes help travellers on a dark night, or sometimes lead them right into the bog. We haven’t spotted any on our peatlands... yet!

 

Learn more about how you can help restore peatland.