CARBON AND MOORLANDS

It is now well known that heather moorland located on peatland, are a huge carbon store with peat soils being extremely rich in carbon, storing it effectively for very long periods. 

Covering only 3% of the world’s land surface, peatlands contain 30% of all the organic carbon in the soil worldwide. When peatland is healthy, it gathers and stores atmospheric carbon; however, if it becomes degraded or damaged, it becomes a chimney, releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere on a potentially vast scale. This makes their management critical in addressing climate change. 

In the UK, extensive areas of peatland have been damaged by human activity (such as tree planting, agriculture, fuel, pollution and wildfire) and this has changed the hydrology and ecology to a point where many peatlands are now net emitters of carbon, loosing sensitive peat-forming vegetation such as Sphagnum mosses and important habitat.  

Sphagnum and heather itself are effective at sequestering carbon. But heather management approaches - such as burning and cutting or indeed non-management - can affect carbon sequestration or release rates. We need to better understand the impacts of different types of management on the long-term carbon storage capacity of upland vegetation - and that requires sound scientific evidence.  

The Heather Trust believes there is still much to be discovered about the true benefits in terms of carbon sequestration in our uplands and therefore calls for more long-term research so we can better preserve these vital carbon stores now and in the future.