SESSION 1: More than just Heather TALK 3: Mires

• Main Author: Lindsay, R.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Natual England 2016
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: https://repository.uel.ac.uk/item/8528y; https://repository.uel.ac.uk/download/d48a851360545dc5a5b8690937f9bbab16045dea786523abc8113789e2003c66/221471/Lindsay_Proceedings%20of%20the%2011th%20National%20Heathland%20Conference.pdf

Of all the terrestrial habitats in the UK, peatlands are perhaps the most invisible. This invisibility is all the more remarkable when one considers that peatlands are the world’s most extensive type of wetland, being found on all continents and ranging from the arctic to the tropics. So often they are defined as something other than peatland – usually dry heath, wet heath or moorland – but closer investigation, as was undertaken during negotiations by the former Nature Conservancy Council to purchase Fenn's and Whixall Moss on the Clwyd/Shropshire border, reveals that areas thought of as heathland on thin peat, or as dry moorland, are in fact damaged examples of very deep peat. Managing such areas as anything other than peatland is likely to be un‐sustainable and lead to a steady degradation of all those ecosystems services which are provided by peatlands, such as long‐term carbon storage, flood storage, water quality‐control and a distinctive range of biodiversity.