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68-470: Larger towns in the area: The region is usually divided into lower, central, and upper basin areas, each with its own different characteristics. Today, the river is best known for the vivid wildlife in the peatbogs and marshes in its flood areas. Historically, the borderland regions of Mazovia and Lithuania, the area retains much of its cultural diversity today. The basin of the Biebrza River

136-456: A fen (or, on acidic substrates, valley bog), to a carr , as silt or peat accumulates within the lake. Eventually, peat builds up to a level where the land surface is too flat for ground or surface water to reach the center of the wetland. This part, therefore, becomes wholly rain-fed (ombrotrophic), and the resulting acidic conditions allow the development of bog (even if the substrate is non-acidic). The bog continues to form peat, and over time

204-497: A broad definition: Because all bogs have peat, they are a type of peatland. As a peat-producing ecosystem, they are also classified as mires , along with fens. Bogs differ from fens, in that fens receive water and nutrients from mineral-rich surface or groundwater, while bogs receive water and nutrients from precipitation. Because fens are supplied with mineral-rich water, they tend to range from slightly acidic to slightly basic, while bogs are always acidic because precipitation lacks

272-812: A butterfly called the bog copper ( Lycaena epixanthe ). In Ireland, the viviparous lizard , the only known reptile in the country, dwells in bogland. The United Kingdom in its Biodiversity Action Plan establishes bog habitats as a priority for conservation. Russia has a large reserve system in the West Siberian Lowland . The highest protected status occurs in Zapovedniks ( IUCN category IV); Gydansky and Yugansky are two prominent examples. Bogs are fragile ecosystems, and have been deteriorating quickly, as archaeologists and scientists have been recently finding. Bone material found in bogs has had accelerated deterioration from first analyses in

340-404: A few rhizoids. Soon afterwards, the protonema develops buds and these differentiate into its characteristic, erect, leafy, branched gametophyte with chlorophyllose cells and hyaline cells. Carpets of living Sphagnum may be attacked by various fungi , and one fungus that is also a mushroom , Sphagnurus paluster , produces conspicuous dead patches. When this fungus and other agarics attack

408-408: A height of 10 to 20 cm (4 to 8 in), further than would be expected by ballistics alone. The acceleration of the spores is about 36,000 g . Spores are extremely important in establishment of new populations in disturbed habitats and on islands. Human activities like slash-and-burn and cattle grazing are believed to promote the growth and expansion of Sphagnum moss. Oceanic islands such as

476-534: A number of governmental and conservation agencies. They can provide habitat for mammals, such as caribou , moose , and beavers , as well as for species of nesting shorebirds, such as Siberian cranes and yellowlegs . Bogs contain species of vulnerable reptilians such as the bog turtle . Bogs even have distinctive insects; English bogs give a home to a yellow fly called the hairy canary fly ( Phaonia jaroschewskii ), and bogs in North America are habitat for

544-553: A pore at one end to allow for water absorption and improved water-holding capacity. These unique cells help Sphagnum to retain water during prolonged UV exposure. Sphagnum , like all other land plants, has an alternation of generations ; like other bryophytes , the haploid gametophyte generation is dominant and persistent. Unlike other mosses, the long-lived gametophytes do not rely upon rhizoids to assist in water uptake. Sphagnum species can be unisexual (male or female, dioecious) or bisexual (male and female gametes produced from

612-527: A roothold. The result is a narrow, permanently wet habitat. After drying, peat is used as a fuel , and it has been used that way for centuries. More than 20% of home heat in Ireland comes from peat, and it is also used for fuel in Finland, Scotland, Germany, and Russia. Russia is the leading exporter of peat for fuel, at more than 90 million metric tons per year. Ireland's Bord na Móna ("peat board")

680-402: A shallow dome of bog peat develops into a raised bog. The dome is typically a few meters high in the center and is often surrounded by strips of fen or other wetland vegetation at the edges or along streamsides where groundwater can percolate into the wetland. The various types of raised bog may be divided into: In cool climates with consistently high rainfall (on more than c. 235 days a year),

748-539: A shiny green, spherical spore capsule that becomes black with spores. Sporophytes are raised on stalks to facilitate spore dispersal, but unlike other mosses, Sphagnum stalks are produced by the maternal gametophyte. Tetrahedral haploid spores are produced in the sporophyte by meiosis, which are then dispersed when the capsule explosively discharges its cap, called an operculum , and shoots the spores some distance. The spores germinate to produce minute protonemae , which start as filaments, can become thalloid, and can produce

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816-537: A surgical dressing , published in Science in 1918, was instrumental in the acceptance of Sphagnum moss use as a medical dressing in place of cotton. Preparations using Sphagnum such as Sphagnol soap have been used for various skin conditions including acne , ringworm , and eczema . The soap was used by the British Red Cross during both World Wars to treat facial wounds and trench sores. Since it

884-547: A wide array of peatland plants, including sedges and ericaceous shrubs, as well as orchids and carnivorous plants. Sphagnum and the peat formed from it do not decay readily because of the phenolic compounds embedded in the moss's cell walls . In addition, bogs, like all wetlands, develop anaerobic soil conditions, which produces slower anaerobic decay rather than aerobic microbial action. Peat moss can also acidify its surroundings by taking up cations , such as calcium and magnesium , and releasing hydrogen ions. Under

952-406: Is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses , commonly known as sphagnum moss , also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat ). Accumulations of Sphagnum can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; plants may hold 16 to 26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on

1020-533: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a river in Poland is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bog A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials – often mosses , typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands . Other names for bogs include mire , mosses, quagmire, and muskeg ; alkaline mires are called fens . A bayhead

1088-414: Is absorptive and extremely acidic, it inhibits growth of bacteria and fungi, so it is used for shipping seeds and live plants. Peat moss is used to dispose of the clarified liquid output (effluent) from septic tanks in areas that lack the proper conditions for ordinary disposal means. It is also used as an environmentally friendly alternative to chlorine in swimming pool sanitation . The moss inhibits

1156-544: Is another type of bog found in the forest of the Gulf Coast states in the United States. They are often covered in heath or heather shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink . Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in nutrients. A bog usually is found at a freshwater soft spongy ground that

1224-492: Is done, the light intensity, and the water table. This "farming" is based on a sustainable management program approved by New Zealand's Department of Conservation ; it ensures the regeneration of the moss, while protecting the wildlife and the environment. Most harvesting in New Zealand swamps is done only using pitchforks without the use of heavy machinery. During transportation, helicopters are commonly employed to transfer

1292-593: Is forbidden in Chile since April 2024. Harvesting aside, bogs where Sphagnum grows have also come under threat by the development of wind farms in cool humid areas such as the Cordillera del Piuchén where the San Pedro Wind Farm was constructed in the 2010s. The construction of each wind turbine usually implies the removal of vegetation and the alteration of the soil, changing by the way also of

1360-443: Is inhabited not only by hundreds of rare and endangered sorts of birds, but also by people representing diverse cultures, languages, and religions. Although most of the population of the region speaks standard Polish, some people in the upper river basin (municipalities of Lipsk , Dąbrowa Białostocka and partly Sztabin ) speak a local dialect of Belarusian (called by them prosty jazyk 'simple language'). The people there belong to

1428-400: Is made up of decayed plant matter which is known as peat. They are generally found in cooler northern climates and are formed in poorly draining lake basins. In contrast to fens , they derive most of their water from precipitation rather than mineral-rich ground or surface water. Water flowing out of bogs has a characteristic brown colour, which comes from dissolved peat tannins . In general,

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1496-684: Is sometimes made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog, and 'sphagnum peat moss' (North American usage) or 'sphagnum peat' (British usage), the latter being the slowly decaying matter underneath. Dried sphagnum moss is used in northern Arctic regions as an insulating material. Anaerobic acidic sphagnum bogs have low rates of decay, and hence preserve plant fragments and pollen to allow reconstruction of past environments. They even preserve human bodies for millennia; examples of these preserved specimens are Tollund Man , Haraldskær Woman , Clonycavan Man and Lindow Man . Such bogs can also preserve human hair and clothing, one of

1564-618: The Faroe Islands , the Galápagos or the Azores have recorded a significant increase in their Sphagnum populations after human settlement. Peat moss can be distinguished from other moss species by its unique branch clusters. The plant and stem color, the shape of the branch and stem leaves, and the shape of the green cells are all characteristics used to identify peat moss to species. Sphagnum taxonomy has been very contentious since

1632-675: The Haraldskær Woman and Tollund Man in Denmark, and Lindow man found at Lindow Common in England. The Tollund Man was so well preserved that when the body was discovered in 1950, the discoverers thought it was a recent murder victim and researchers were even able to tell the last meal that the Tollund Man ate before he died: porridge and fish. This process happens because of the low oxygen levels of bogs in combination with

1700-620: The Northern Hemisphere in peat bogs, conifer forests, and moist tundra areas. Their northernmost populations lie in the archipelago of Svalbard , Arctic Norway , at 81° N. In the Southern Hemisphere , the largest peat areas are in southern Chile and Argentina , part of the vast Magellanic moorland ( circa 44,000 square km; 17,000 sq. mi.). Peat areas are also found in New Zealand and Tasmania . In

1768-1248: The Northern Hemisphere . The world's largest wetland is the peat bogs of the Western Siberian Lowlands in Russia , which cover more than a million square kilometres. Large peat bogs also occur in North America, particularly the Hudson Bay Lowland and the Mackenzie River Basin. They are less common in the Southern Hemisphere, with the largest being the Magellanic moorland , comprising some 44,000 square kilometres (17,000 sq mi) in southern South America. Sphagnum bogs were widespread in northern Europe but have often been cleared and drained for agriculture. A paper led by Graeme T. Swindles in 2019 showed that peatlands across Europe have undergone rapid drying in recent centuries owing to human impacts including drainage, peat cutting and burning. A 2014 expedition leaving from Itanga village, Republic of

1836-532: The Sphagnales reflecting an ancestral relationship with the Tasmanian endemic Ambuchanania and long phylogenetic distance to the rest of Sphagnum . Within main clade of Sphagnum , phylogenetic distance is relatively short, and molecular dating methods suggest nearly all current Sphagnum species are descended from a radiation that occurred just 14 million years ago. Sphagnum mosses occur mainly in

1904-464: The barley used in making Scotch whisky . Once the peat has been extracted it can be difficult to restore the wetland , since peat accumulation is a slow process. More than 90% of the bogs in England have been damaged or destroyed. In 2011 plans for the elimination of peat in gardening products were announced by the UK government. The peat in bogs is an important place for the storage of carbon. If

1972-482: The cortical layer which serves to absorb water and protect the pith. Mosses have no vascular system to move water and nutrients around the plant. Thus tissues are thin and usually one cell thick to allow them to diffuse easily. Sphagnum mosses have two distinct cell types. There are small, green, living cells with chlorophyll ( chlorophyllose cells) that produce food for the plant. Additionally there are larger hyaline or retort cells that are barrel shaped and have

2040-406: The operculum is forced off, followed by a cloud of spores. The exact mechanism has traditionally attributed to a "pop gun" method using air compressed in the capsule, reaching a maximum velocity of 3.6 meters (12 feet) per second, but alternative mechanisms have been recently proposed. High-speed photography has shown vortex rings are created during the discharge, which enable the spores to reach

2108-419: The protonema , Sphagnum is induced to produce nonphotosynthetic gemmae that can survive the fungal attack and months later germinate to produce new protonema and leafy gametophytes. As with many other mosses , Sphagnum species disperse spores through the wind. The tops of spore capsules are only about 1 cm ( 1 ⁄ 2 ") above ground, and where wind is weak. As the spherical spore capsule dries,

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2176-416: The 1940s. This has been found to be from fluctuations in ground water and increase in acidity in lower areas of bogs that is affecting the rich organic material. Many of these areas have been permeated to the lowest levels with oxygen, which dries and cracks layers. There have been some temporary solutions to try and fix these issues, such as adding soil to the tops of threatened areas, yet they do not work in

2244-510: The 2010s, Sphagnum peat in Chile has begun to be harvested at a large scale for export to countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States. Sphagnum ’s ability to absorb excess water and release it during dry months means that overexploitation may threaten the water supply in the fjords and channels of Chile . Extraction of Sphagnum in Chile is regulated by law since 2 August 2018. Between 2018 and 2024, Chilean law allowed for

2312-523: The Congo , discovered a peat bog "as big as England " which stretches into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo . Like all wetlands, it is difficult to rigidly define bogs for a number of reasons, including variations between bogs, the in-between nature of wetlands as an intermediate between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and varying definitions between wetland classification systems. However, there are characteristics common to all bogs that provide

2380-501: The Orthodox or Roman Catholic church. On the north bank of the upper Biebrza there are also a few villages where so-called " old believers " live, who speak an archaic dialect of Russian. Some of these communities have preserved much of their traditional culture in spite of long-lasting communist government policies aimed at assimilation of non-Polish cultural and linguistic minorities. This Podlaskie Voivodeship location article

2448-759: The Southern Hemisphere, however, peat landscapes may contain many moss species other than Sphagnum . Sphagnum species are also reported from "dripping rocks" in mountainous, subtropical Brazil . Several of the world's largest wetlands are sphagnum-dominated bogs , including the West Siberian Lowland, the Hudson Bay Lowland and the Mackenzie River Valley. These areas provide habitat for common and rare species. They also store large amounts of carbon, which helps reduce global warming. According to an article written in 2013,

2516-473: The U.S. got up to 80% of sphagnum peat moss it uses from Canada. At that time, in Canada, the peat bog mass harvested each year was roughly 1/60th of the peat mass that annually accumulated. About 0.02% of the 1.1 million km (420,000 sq mi) of Canadian peat bog are used for peat moss mining. Some efforts are being made to restore peat bogs after peat mining, and some debate exists as to whether

2584-613: The biodiversity of an unharvested bog." PittMoss, a peat moss alternative made from recycled newspaper, has emerged as a sustainable substitute in growing media. Coir has also been touted as a sustainable alternative to peat moss in growing media. Another peat moss alternative is manufactured in California from sustainably harvested redwood fiber. Semi-open cell polyurethane materials available in flaked and sheet stock are also finding application as sphagnum replacements with typical usage in green wall and roof garden substrates. In

2652-518: The combination of low nutrient levels and waterlogging. Sphagnum is generally abundant, along with ericaceous shrubs. The shrubs are often evergreen, which may assist in conservation of nutrients. In drier locations, evergreen trees can occur, in which case the bog blends into the surrounding expanses of boreal evergreen forest. Sedges are one of the more common herbaceous species. Carnivorous plants such as sundews ( Drosera ) and pitcher plants (for example Sarracenia purpurea ) have adapted to

2720-400: The deepest part of the valley, and a stream may run through the surface of the bog. Valley bogs may develop in relatively dry and warm climates, but because they rely on ground or surface water, they only occur on acidic substrates. These develop from a lake or flat marshy area, over either non-acidic or acidic substrates. Over centuries there is a progression from open lake, to a marsh, to

2788-558: The dissolved minerals (e.g. calcium , magnesium , carbonate ) that act to buffer the natural acidity of atmospheric carbon dioxide . Geography and geology both impact the hydrology: as groundwater mineral content reflects the bedrock geology, there can be great deal of variability in some common ions (e.g. manganese , iron ) while proximity to coastal areas is associated with higher sulfate and sodium concentrations. There are many highly specialized animals, fungi, and plants associated with bog habitat. Most are capable of tolerating

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2856-551: The early 1900s; most species require microscopic dissection to be identified. In the field, most Sphagnum species can be identified to one of four major sections of the genus—classification and descriptions follow Andrus 2007 (Flora North America): The reciprocal monophyly of these sections and two other minor ones ( Rigida and Squarrosa ) has been clarified using molecular phylogenetics . All but two species normally identified as Sphagnum reside in one clade; two other species have recently been separated into new families within

2924-460: The edges of acidic lakes. The bog vegetation, mostly sphagnum moss anchored by sedges (such as Carex lasiocarpa ), forms a floating mat approximately half a meter thick on the surface of water or above very wet peat. White spruce ( Picea glauca ) may grow in this bog regime. Walking on the surface causes it to move – larger movements may cause visible ripples on the surface, or they may even make trees sway. The bog mat may eventually spread across

2992-553: The global average. Because bogs and other peatlands are carbon sinks, they are releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases as they warm up. These changes have resulted in a severe decline of biodiversity and species populations of peatlands throughout Northern Europe. Bog habitats may develop in various situations, depending on the climate and topography. Bogs may be classified on their topography, proximity to water, method of recharge, and nutrient accumulation. These develop in gently sloping valleys or hollows. A layer of peat fills

3060-421: The ground surface may remain waterlogged for much of the time, providing conditions for the development of bog vegetation . In these circumstances, bog develops as a layer "blanketing" much of the land, including hilltops and slopes. Although a blanket bog is more common on acidic substrates, under some conditions it may also develop on neutral or even alkaline ones, if abundant acidic rainwater predominates over

3128-469: The groundwater. A blanket bog can occur in drier or warmer climates, because under those conditions hilltops and sloping ground dry out too often for peat to form – in intermediate climates a blanket bog may be limited to areas which are shaded from direct sunshine. In periglacial climates a patterned form of blanket bog may occur, known as a string bog . In Europe, these mostly very thin peat layers without significant surface structures are distributed over

3196-840: The headwaters of large rivers. Even the enormous Yangtze River arises in the Ruoergai peatland near its headwaters in Tibet . Blueberries , cranberries , cloudberries , huckleberries , and lingonberries are harvested from the wild in bogs. Bog oak , wood that has been partially preserved by bogs, has been used in the manufacture of furniture . Sphagnum bogs are also used for outdoor recreation, with activities including ecotourism and hunting. For example, many popular canoe routes in northern Canada include areas of peatland. Some other activities, such as all-terrain vehicle use, are especially damaging to bogs. The anaerobic environment and presence of tannic acids within bogs can result in

3264-656: The high acidity. These anaerobic conditions lead to some of the best-preserved mummies and offer much archeological insight into society as far as 8,000 years back. Céide Fields in County Mayo in Ireland, a 5,000-year-old neolithic farming landscape has been found preserved under a blanket bog , complete with field walls and hut sites. One ancient artifact found in various bogs is bog butter , large masses of fat, usually in wooden containers. These are thought to have been food stores of both butter and tallow . Sphagnum List of Sphagnum species Sphagnum

3332-468: The hills and valleys of Ireland, Scotland, England, and Norway. In North America, blanket bogs occur predominantly in Canada east of Hudson Bay . These bogs are often still under the influence of mineral soil water (groundwater). Blanket bogs do not occur north of the 65th latitude in the northern hemisphere. A quaking bog , schwingmoor , or swingmoor is a form of floating bog occurring in wetter parts of valley bogs and raised bogs and sometimes around

3400-743: The local hydrology . Europe has a long history of the exploitation of peatlands. The Netherlands , for example, once had large areas of peatland, both fen and bog. Between 100 AD and the present, they were drained and converted to agricultural land. The English broadlands have small lakes that originated as peat mines. More than 90% of the bogs in England have been damaged or destroyed. A handful of bogs has been preserved through government buyouts of peat-mining interests. Over longer time scales, however, some parts of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales have seen expansion of bogs, particularly blanket bogs, in response to deforestation and abandonment of agricultural land. New Zealand has, like other parts of

3468-497: The long-term. Extreme weather like dry summers are likely the cause, as they lower precipitation and the groundwater table. It is speculated that these issues will only increase with a rise in global temperature and climate change. Since bogs take thousands of years to form and create the rich peat that is used as a resource, once they are gone they are extremely hard to recover. Arctic and sub-Arctic circles where many bogs are warming at 0.6 °C per decade, an amount twice as large as

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3536-526: The low fertility and cool climate result in relatively slow plant growth, but decay is even slower due to low oxygen levels in saturated bog soils. Hence, peat accumulates. Large areas of the landscape can be covered many meters deep in peat. Bogs have distinctive assemblages of animal, fungal, and plant species, and are of high importance for biodiversity , particularly in landscapes that are otherwise settled and farmed. Bogs are widely distributed in cold, temperate climes , mostly in boreal ecosystems in

3604-408: The low-nutrient conditions by using invertebrates as a nutrient source. Orchids have adapted to these conditions through the use of mycorrhizal fungi to extract nutrients. Some shrubs such as Myrica gale (bog myrtle) have root nodules in which nitrogen fixation occurs, thereby providing another supplemental source of nitrogen. Bogs are recognized as a significant/specific habitat type by

3672-405: The manual extraction of Sphagnum using only pitchforks or similar tools as an aid. In a given designated harvesting area (polygon) at least 30% of Sphagnum coverage had to be left unharvested. Harvested Sphagnum fibers we not allowed to exceed 15 cm (5.9 in) in length and the remaining Sphagnum after harvest was not to be left with a length of less than 5 cm (2.0 in) over

3740-425: The most noteworthy examples being Egtved Girl , Denmark . Because of the acidity of peat, however, bones are dissolved rather than preserved. These bogs have also been used to preserve food. Up to 2000-year-old containers of butter or lard have been found. Sphagnum moss has been used for centuries as a dressing for wounds, including through World War I . Botanist John William Hotson 's paper, Sphagnum as

3808-485: The newly harvested moss from the swamp to the nearest road. Decayed, dried sphagnum moss has the name of peat or peat moss. This is used as a soil conditioner which increases the soil's capacity to hold water and nutrients by increasing capillary forces and cation exchange capacity – uses that are particularly useful in gardening. This is often desired when dealing with very sandy soil, or plants that need increased or steady moisture content to flourish. A distinction

3876-629: The original law project presented in 2018 sought the extablish a definitive ban on the harvest. Along Rubens River in Magallanes Region there are some historically important harvesting fields of peat in Sphagnum peatlands. Sphagnum peatlands in Chile disturbed by peat extraction have been found to host various invasive plant species including Rumex acetosella , Carex canescens , Holcus lanatus and Hieracium pilosella . Harvesting of peat in Sphagnum mosses or any where else

3944-435: The peat bogs can be restored to their premining condition and how long the process takes. "The North American Wetlands Conservation Council estimates that harvested peatlands can be restored to 'ecologically balanced systems' within five to 20 years after peat harvesting." Some wetlands scientists assert that "a managed bog bears little resemblance to a natural one. Like tree farms, these peatlands tend toward monoculture, lacking

4012-475: The peat decays, carbon dioxide would be released to the atmosphere, contributing to global warming. Undisturbed, bogs function as a carbon sink . As one example, the peatlands of the former Soviet Union were calculated to be removing 52 Tg of carbon per year from the atmosphere. Therefore, the rewetting of drained peatlands may be one of the most cost-effective ways to mitigate climate change. Peat bogs are also important in storing fresh water, particularly in

4080-404: The plant ( capitulum) has compact clusters of young branches that give the plant its characteristic tuft-like appearance. Along the stem are scattered leaves of various shapes, named stem leaves; the shape varies according to species. Sphagnum has a distinctive cellular structure. The stem portion consists of two important sections. The pith which is the site of food production and storage, and

4148-613: The remarkable preservation of organic material. Finds of such material have been made in Slovenia , Denmark , Germany , Ireland , Russia , and the United Kingdom. Some bogs have preserved bog-wood, such as ancient oak logs useful in dendrochronology . They have yielded extremely well-preserved bog bodies , with hair, organs, and skin intact, buried there thousands of years ago after apparent Germanic and Celtic human sacrifice . Excellent examples of such human specimens include

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4216-440: The right conditions, peat can accumulate to a depth of many meters. Different species of Sphagnum have different tolerance limits for flooding and pH, and any one peatland may have a number of different Sphagnum species. An individual Sphagnum plant consists of a main stem , with tightly arranged clusters of branch fascicles usually consisting of two or three spreading branches and two to four hanging branches. The top of

4284-411: The same plant; monoecious ); In North America, 80% of Sphagnum species are unisexual. Gametophytes have substantial asexual reproduction by fragmentation , producing much of the living material in sphagnum peatlands. Swimming sperm fertilize eggs contained in archegonia that remain attached to the female gametophyte . The sporophyte is relatively short-lived, and consists almost entirely of

4352-416: The species. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions. As Sphagnum moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger mires , both raised bogs and blanket bogs . Thus, Sphagnum can influence the composition of such habitats, with some describing Sphagnum as 'habitat manipulators' or 'autogenic ecosystem engineers'. These peat accumulations then provide habitat for

4420-401: The water surface to cover bays or even entire small lakes. Bogs at the edges of lakes may become detached and form floating islands . A cataract bog is a rare ecological community formed where a permanent stream flows over a granite outcropping. The sheeting of water keeps the edges of the rock wet without eroding the soil, but in this precarious location, no tree or large shrub can maintain

4488-507: The water table. In the regions of Los Ríos (40°S) and Los Lagos (41–43°S) the same plots could be harvested after 12 years, while further south in Aysén (44–48°S) and Magallanes (49–56°S) 85 years had to pass before the same area can be harvested again. According to a 2024 law harvesting of Sphagnum can only be done with land-management plans approved by Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero . Some environmental organisations expressed regret as

4556-411: The world, lost large areas of peatland . The latest estimates for wetland loss in New Zealand are 90% over 150 years. In some cases, better care is taken during the harvesting of Sphagnum to ensure enough moss is remaining to allow regrowth. An 8-year cycle is suggested, but some sites require a longer cycle of 11 to 32 years for full recovery of biomass, depending on factors including whether reseeding

4624-452: Was one of the first companies to mechanically harvest peat, which is being phased out. The other major use of dried peat is as a soil amendment (sold as moss peat or sphagnum peat ) to increase the soil's capacity to retain moisture and enrich the soil. It is also used as a mulch . Some distilleries , notably in the Islay whisky-producing region, use the smoke from peat fires to dry

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