Peat bog: education, age, interesting facts

Almost in any geographical area you can find such an amazing natural landscape, like a peat bog. It is a storehouse of colossal energy reserves, new fertile land and a water reservoir that supplies rivers.

Description

A swamp is called a site of terrain with excessive soil moisture and stagnant water on the surface throughout the year. Due to lack of bias, water does not escape, and the area is gradually covered by moisture-loving vegetation. As a result of lack of air and excessive humidity, peat deposits form on the surface. Their thickness, as a rule, is not less than 30 cm.

Peat is a mineral used as a source of fuel and organic fertilizer, so marshes are of great economic importance.

Reasons for the formation of peat bogs

The history of their appearance is more than 400 million years. Modern "young" swamps reach the age of about 12 thousand years. Their total area across the planet is about 2,682,000 km², of which 73% is Russia. The emergence of the swamp is preceded by a number of factors: a humid climate, a landscape feature, the presence of water-resistant soil layers and the proximity of groundwater.

As a result of prolonged excessive moisture in the soil, specific processes occur leading to the accumulation of peat. Forests in conditions of oxygen starvation are dying, areas are populated by marsh vegetation well adapted to similar conditions. All this contributes to further bogging, which is accompanied by peat accumulation. When there is a lack of oxygen, the plant remains are not completely decomposed, they gradually accumulate, forming a peat bog.

Vegetation

Specific living conditions contribute to the development of specific plants. The lack of water exchange creates a lack of lime in peat deposits. This leads to the multiplication of sphagnum moss, which does not tolerate the presence of even a small amount of lime in the water.

Typical plants of peat bogs include cranberries, blueberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, sundew, and whites. An interesting fact is that they all have features that prevent water loss, characteristic of plants that prevail in dry places.

Peat formation

It is an organic rock containing up to 50% minerals. It contains bitumen, humic acids, their salts, as well as parts of plants that did not decay (stems, leaves, roots).

The top layer covering the peat bog is hydromorphic soil. It is inhabited by invertebrates and microorganisms, is permeated with roots and participates in metabolism with phytocenosis. The accumulation of peat is very slow - for a year the thickness of the layer increases by no more than 1 mm. This largely depends on the growth rate of the main peat former - moss sphagnum.

Gradually, under the influence of the layers lying above the peat thickens, chemical transformations take place in it, and an inorganic part appears. The biological activity of this layer is preserved if the water level in the swamp is variable and in summer decreases to 40 cm.

Peat is a minerals used in a wide variety of industries and agriculture. It serves as a raw material for creating coarse, but strong fabrics. Peat products are produced from peat. The ability of peat to absorb moisture allows it to be used as a bedding for livestock. In addition, this is an excellent organic fertilizer.

The importance of peat bogs

High rates of drainage of swamps have led to the threat of their complete disappearance. In 1971, the Convention was signed in Ramsar, the purpose of which was the conservation of wetlands. Today, about 60 countries (including Russia) take part in it, which are especially concerned with the problem of the peat bogs disappearance.

Any swamp is a natural reservoir. Together they keep five times more fresh water than all the rivers in the world. Peat bogs are involved in providing food to rivers. The largest of them are able to stop forest fires. They moisten the air in the surrounding space and serve as a specific filter. During the year, 1 hectare of swamp absorbs from the atmosphere up to 1500 kg of carbon dioxide, releasing more than 500 kg of oxygen. Peat extraction often leads to the destruction of the swamp, and as a result of this, rivers become shallow, soil erosion occurs , and a landscape change occurs.

In peat there are perfectly preserved for thousands of years the remains of plants, pollen, seeds, through which you can study the past of our planet. Findings in peat bogs helped, for example, scientists to establish that some species of animals managed to wait there to change the climatic conditions.

The swamp is the least affected ecosystem of human intervention, so it is a safe haven for many plants and animals listed in the Red Book. Here grow valuable berries, such as cloudberries, cranberries, cranberries.

The Kingdom of Spirits

To our days has come a huge number of legends and legends associated with swamps. They have long attracted people with their mystery and at the same time frightened them. This is not surprising, because the findings, discovered at times in peat bogs, caused real fear. For example, in the moors, located in Norway and Denmark, were found the remains of about seven hundred people who lived several millennia ago. The swampy environment was so well preserved that neither the remains themselves nor the clothes on them were almost harmed during all this time.

No less terrifying, in the old days, there was one phenomenon, which is quite often observed in a swamp. First, a huge bubble swells on its surface, then it bursts with a noise, and a stream of water and mud rises upward. People considered this gloomy spectacle to be a manifestation of evil spirits, an evil spirit inhabiting a peat bog. In fact, this phenomenon, of course, has a scientific explanation. As a result of the rotting of marsh plants , methane gas is formed, which accumulates under the silt layer at the very bottom of the marsh. With a very large accumulation of it, such an explosion occurs. Basically, this gas comes to the surface calmly in the form of small bubbles.

Therefore, the worst thing that a peat bog is dangerous is the possibility of fires, which quite often occur after their draining.