short non-fiction · nature
Why wet peat keeps carbon put
A bog stores old plant matter because saturation slows the machinery of decay.
Peat begins with incomplete decomposition. In waterlogged ground, oxygen is scarce and many decomposers work slowly, so dead mosses and other plants accumulate faster than they break down. Layer upon layer becomes a carbon-rich soil. Drain the ground and air enters; decomposition accelerates, the peat shrinks, and carbon dioxide losses rise. Fire can release more.
Rewetting aims to restore the condition that made storage possible, but it is not an instant climate refund. Methane may increase after water levels rise, vegetation takes time to recover, and badly damaged sites respond differently. The defensible goal is to halt continuing loss and rebuild peat-forming processes—not to treat every restored bog as an immediate, identical carbon sink.
Based on the work of
Annie Proulx
· 2022
Why this bookA concise ecological and cultural case for wetlands, written with anger, history and close attention.
What to keep in view
Rewetting can raise methane in the near term, and net climate effects vary with site condition and time horizon.