Bogs record other environmental
changes and raised bogs are especially good
sources of information about the past climate.
- Fragments
of insects, especially beetles, can
reveal changes in conditions on the bog. A
range of less familiar microscopic organisms,
things called chironomids (non-biting midges)
and testate amoebae, can tell us how the
climate has changed because they are very
sensitive to changes in moisture and
temperature.
- Chemical
changes in the bog also help us to
understand climate change. Although the wet
and acidic conditions in peat stop a lot of
decomposition or decay, when it is warmer
bacteria and fungi living near the bog
surface can cause more decay. The opposite
happens when the climate is wetter. Chemical
analysis of the amount of acid produced by
decomposition helps us see when the bog, and
therefore the climate, was wetter or drier in
the past.
- This
information is also useful to modern
climatologists and conservationists because
bogs can tell us how plants reacted to
climatic changes in the past. This could help
us to predict and manage the effects of
future climatic change better.
A future for peat? Preserving
the past
- Bogs
also keep a record of other environmental
changes, because particles in the air settle
down onto the land. We know about past volcanic
eruptions by the traces of ash that dusts
the landscape after each eruption and the
same happens with modern pollution –
soot, ash and other chemical signals can all
be found in the layers of peat. Charcoal
fragments are also carried away from fires
by wind currents and tell us about changes in
burning. This is known as the fire regime.
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