25
Black soil
Peat is mostly
made up of partly
decomposed plants. This
makes it black in colour. It feels
soft and spongy to touch.
Plenty of plants
Peat bogs are habitats for rare plants
such as sphagnum moss. These tiny
plants look like a multi-coloured
carpet because they grow so
close together.
Global warming
Carbon dioxide (CO
2
) is a gas that traps heat
and makes the Earth warmer. Peat stores large
amounts of carbon (found in CO
2
), so protecting
boglands could help to slow global warming.
In the past, many
people dried and
burned peat to heat
cooking stoves.
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r
024-025_Beautiful_Boglands.indd 25 31/10/2019 14:05