The Biogeochemistry of Northern Peatlands and Its Possible Responses to Global Warming

• Main Author: Gorham, Eville
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1995
• Subjects: Fennoscandia; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195086409.003.0011; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52438425/isbn-9780195086409-book-part-11.pdf

Abstract Plant remains accumulate as variably decomposed material, often in highly organic deposits above the mineral surface. These may occur as mor humus in the case of unsaturated forest and heath soils (Romell and Heiberg 1931), where the deposit is seldom more than 10-20 cm deep, or as peat (Clymo 1983) in waterlogged wetlands. Where the organic wetland deposit is shallow and mixed with a good deal of mineral matter, it is often designated muck. Where the wetland accumulates more than 30 cm of highly organic peat (40 cm in Canada), it is said to be a peatland. Peatlands, sometimes several meters in depth, are particularly common in the northern landscapes of Russia and the Baltic republics, Canada, the northern United States (especially Alaska), and Fennoscandia, where they cover 342 x 106 ha (Gorham 1991a) and account for about 9.7% of the total land surface.