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peat

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Organic matter found in bogs and formed by the incomplete decomposition of plants such as sphagnum moss. Northern Asia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, and other places have large deposits, which have been dried and used as fuel from ancient times. Peat can also be used as a soil additive. Peat bogs began to be formed when glaciers retreated, about 9,000 years ago. They grow at the rate of only a millimetre a year, and large-scale digging can result in destruction both of the bog and of specialized plants growing there. The destruction of peat bogs is responsible for diminishing fish stocks in coastal waters; the run-off from the peatlands carries high concentrations of iron, which affects the growth of the plankton on which the fish feed. Approximately 60% of the world's wetlands are peat. In May 1999 the Ramsar Convention on the Conservation of Wetlands approved a peatlands action plan that should have a major impact on the conservation of peat bogs. In 1999, only 6% of UK peat bogs were…
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A fen can develop into a raised bog....
1. Peat: A Short Introduction 2. Peat as an Energy Source 3. Environmental Concerns 4. The History of the Use of Peat for Fuel Glossary bog (raised) A mire raised above the surrounding landscape and fed only by precipitation. boreal Biogeographical zone between the temperate and the subarctic zones. …
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Full text Article peat

From Environmental History and Global Change: A Dictionary of Environmental History
Formed by partial decomposition of vegetation in bogs under wet, acid conditions. In the past upland blanket bogs were sources of pasture, game, wildfowl and particularly fuel. When drained, lowland peat can form prime agricultural land. Commercial peat cutting is recorded from the C12 in Flanders, …
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Full text Article peat

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Organic matter found in bogs and formed by the incomplete decomposition of plants such as sphagnum moss. Northern Asia, Canada, Finland, Ireland, and other places have large deposits, which have been dried and used as fuel from ancient times. Peat can also be used as a soil additive. Peat bogs began…
| 282 words
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Full text Article peat

From Dictionary of Energy
Peat is vegetable matter that has been accumulated and preserved in anaerobic waterlogged areas (wetlands). The former extent of tropical and non-tropical peatlands is c. 4 million km 2 , largely in North America, Asia and Europe. In boreal and sub-boreal peatlands alone 270-370 x 10 15 g of carbon…
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Full text Article peat

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
soil material consisting of partially decomposed organic matter, found mainly in swamps and bogs in various parts of the northern temperate zone but also in some semitropical and tropical regions. Peat is formed by the slow decay of successive layers of aquatic and semiaquatic plants, e.g., sedges, …
| 229 words
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Full text Article peat

From Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary
Semicarbonized residue of plants formed in water-saturated environments (bogs and marshes). It occurs in surface layers 3–10 ft thick and has a water content of 85%. Before peat can be used for chemical or fuel purposes it must be field-dried to a water content of 30–40%. Since the dried product is…
| 173 words
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Full text Article peat

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Organic fuel consisting of a light, spongy material formed in temperate, humid environments by the accumulation and partial decomposition of vegetable remains under conditions of poor drainage. Peat deposition is the first step in the formation of coal . Dried peat burns readily, with a smoky flame…
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Full text Article PEAT and PEATLANDS

From The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
Peat consists of partially decomposed vegetable matter accumulated under wet, acidic conditions. Peatlands fed more or less exclusively by rainfall (ombrogenous peat-lands) occur throughout Wales in two main types - lowland raised bog and blanket bog. Lowland raised bog usually succeeds an earlier…
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Full text Article peat moss

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Any of more than 150–300 species of plants that make up the bryophyte genus Sphagnum , which grow in dense clumps around ponds, in swamps and bogs, on moist, acid cliffs, and on lakeshores from tropical to subpolar regions. These pale-green to deep-red plants can hold 20 times their weight in water. …
| 111 words
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Sphagnopsida: Sphagnum or Peat Mosses
The class Sphagnopsida and order Sphagnales contains only the genus Sphagnum . There are about 150–350 sphagnum moss species, most of which occur in the N Hemisphere. The northernmost sphagnums are found in the Svalbard Archipelago, arctic Norway, at 81°N latitude. Sphagnum and the peat that forms…
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