Under Your Feet

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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024-025_Beautiful_Boglands.indd 25 31/10/2019 14:05