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Working Today for Nature Tomorrow Proceedings of the Risley Moss Bog Restoration Workshop, 26-27 February 2003 23 Proceedings of the Risley Moss Bog Restoration Workshop 26-27 February 2003 working today for nature tomorrow Proceedings of the Risley Moss Bog Restoration Workshop, 26-27 February 2003 23 PEAT FORMING PROCESS AND RESTORATION MANAGEMENT Richard A Lindsay Head of Conservation, School of Health & Bioscience, University of East London HE restoration of bogs has received If the EC definition is taken as the the story should be quite the reverse. considerable attention in recent years. yardstick of restoration success (and it is Cajander (1913) addressed these two T Given that no truly natural bogs difficult to find specific or better alternative anomalous observation by proposing that remain in the lowlands of Britain (Lindsay & forms of yardstick within the literature), the sometimes peat is able to form directly on Immirzi 1996), those who take on the key is clearly the establishment of appropriate ground that was formerly dry. He observed management of an ombrotrophic bog system, peat-forming vegetation. Given this that such a phenomenon is possible if the particularly in the lowlands, are generally objective, it is very important to understand climate is sufficiently wet, or if the ground faced with a site requiring significant, if not the mechanisms by which such vegetation becomes wet because of adjacent substantial, ‘restoration’ management. types arise spontaneously when devising, waterlogging. He termed this process A considerable body of experience about evaluating or choosing restoration techniques paludification . restoration methods for conservation purposes for a particular bog. Although terrestrialisation is probably has accumulated over the years and its the better known process, Wheeler & Shaw compilation in Brooks & Stoneman (1997) Peat formation and restoration (1995) comment that, within Britain as a for the UK and, for example, Dupieux (1998) This paper will consider the natural processes whole, paludification has probably occurred and Manneville, Vergne & Villepoux (1999) of peat bog formation and structure, as they far more extensively, citing the widespread for France, complements the detailed review relate to bog restoration via the establishment development of blanket peat across many of of restoration on commercially cut-over bogs of peat-forming vegetation. It sets out a the upland regions of Britain and in low-lying undertaken by Wheeler & Shaw (1995). conceptual framework for these various lands of the far north. They go on to observe approaches, and compares the benefits of that even the great peatland expanses of the differing restoration strategies. East Anglian Fens almost certainly owe more Concept of ‘restoration’ to paludification than to terrestrialisation. Ideally, the objective, and indeed the measure Terrestrialisation of success for such activities, might be based PEAT FORMATION – THE TWO on complete restoration of all original The primary requirement for this process is features. Some components of a peat bog MAJOR PATHWAYS that a water body should be sufficiently can, however, never be recreated (the peat permanent for it to enable the various seral archive, for example). The practical objective Two conceptual models of peat formation stages of the hydrosere to occur. The for peatland restoration must therefore be have been suggested, the first by Weber successional sequence additionally requires focused on the reinstatement of an ecological (1902, 1908) and another by Cajander that: process rather than any particular end point. (1913). Weber set out the now-classic • one or more plant species becomes For the purposes of the EU Habitats Directive sequence of terrestrialisation, whereby through established; (EC Directive 92/43/EEC) the Commission successional processes a water body becomes • the water chemistry is as required to definition of “damaged raised bog capable of infilled with vegetation and organic material support growth of these various species; natural regeneration” specifies that “there is a until eventually no open water remains and • other environmental factors (such as reasonable expectation of re-establishing the site becomes peat-land. This is the classic light and temperature) are appropriate vegetation with peat-forming capability within 30 ‘hydrosere’ of Clements (1916) - though it is for plant growth; years” (Romão 1996). Such wording makes it worth pointing out that the validity of this • conditions are sufficiently anaerobic for clear that, in the European Commission view, whole concept has more recently been the dead organic material to accumulate. successful restoration is achieved when the object of iconoclastic treatment by Klinger potential for peat formation once again exists. (1996). Peat continues to form as long as there is In other words the resulting vegetation should Cajander (1913) subsequently proposed a anaerobic water to submerge the dead be one that is widely accepted as being second major pathway for peat formation to vegetation. At the outset, the peat-forming capable of forming peat. The timescale of 30 explain the fact that not all peat deposits system may remain wholly under the years can be regarded as a useful milestone have evidence of an initial open-water phase. influence of the mineral-enriched ground- that encourages judgments of success to be This second process also addresses the rather water. The terrestrialising vegetation is made within a specified period rather than curious fact that the basal peat towards the described as fen . leaving the question completely open-ended. margins of some peat bodies is sometimes The system reaches an important The EC does not require the complete found to be significantly younger than the ecological threshold once the peat has reconstruction of a peat bog, with all its basal peat in more central parts. According to completely filled the basin. Further peat structural features, within 30 years. Weber’s (1902) model of terrestrialisation, formation could take place above the 24 Proceedings of the Risley Moss Bog Restoration Workshop, 26-27 February 2003 Peat forming process and restoration management mineral-rich groundwater, but will only do so if the resulting peat is waterlogged (and thus anaerobic) through, for example, regular inputs of rainfall. If the dead plant material Richard Lindsay does not remain anaerobic, it will decay and no further peat accumulation takes place under these circumstances. The terrestrialised site thus reaches a steady state in which minerotrophic fen (or fen carr) is maintained indefinitely, confined by the limits of mineral ground-water influence. In the classic hydrosere described by Tansley (1939), peat accumulation may nevertheless continue even in this steady state. Increased compression under the weight of surface vegetation (which in Tansley’s model includes trees and scrub) makes the peat denser, depresses it below the water table, and enables succession to proceed eventually to mature Quercus woodland. It is not entirely clear whether this theoretical woodland ‘climax’ has ever been reached in Britain, due to the lack of any sites in a totally natural state today. Observation suggests that some form of wetland would actually be the Figure 1: A raised bog dome formed by the retention of rainwater within undecomposed (largely Sphagnum ) peat, thus forming a ‘ground water mound’. The main bulk of climax, perhaps in the form of fen woodlands the dome consists of the catotelm , which is protected from drying out by the thin described by Wheeler (1980), or ‘swamp acrotelm . The ground-water mound forms a hemi-ellipse, and so has a steep woodlands’ described by Moen (1999) for the hydraulic gradient towards the bog margin (the rand ) while central parts have a Nordic countries. gentler gradient (mire expanse ). The whole dome is bounded by the lagg fen . universal (Gibson & Kirkpatrick 1992; Mark, (and thus anaerobic) peat deposit may be as Terrestrialising bogs Johnson, Dickinson & McGlone 1995). much as 10 metres thick at the crown of the – from minerotrophic to ombrotrophic dome. It forms the bulk of the peat body and conditions is termed the catotelm . Covering this After terrestrialisation catotelm is a thin living layer of some 30 cm If conditions are appropriate, however, a – the growth of the raised bog thickness within which the bog water-table rainwater-dependent wetland may begin to fluctuates. This living ‘skin’ is termed the rise above the confines of the ground-water, Proctor (1995) provides an overview of the acrotelm (Ivanov 1981; Ingram & Bragg laying down layer upon layer of dead plant bog environment, and observes that 1984). It generally displays an undulating material at a rate of little more than 1mm of maximum summer water deficit is probably surface consisting of what is frequently (but compressed peat per year as the accumulating one of the more critical factors in determining not entirely accurately) referred to as a material slowly rises above the surrounding the geographical limits of bog growth, at least “hummock-hollow” pattern (Tansley 1939; landscape. It gradually begins to form a dome at low latitudes. Wheeler & Shaw (1995) Godwin & Conway 1939). within which the rain-fed water table perches conclude that the various interactions During drought conditions, the acrotelm above the surrounding mineral ground-water between precipitation, insolation, empties and water levels may fall to the table, rather like a single water droplet might temperature, evapostranspiration and junction with the catotelm but no further. As sit on
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