Next in the Dove Stone top-10 wildlife countdown to Saturday’s BioBlitz is Sphagnum moss. Sphagnum has to be one of the most important species for us at Dove Stone as the building block of blanket bog and healthy bogs provide breeding habitat for birds such as Dunlin and Golden Plover. In the UK there are 35 species of Sphagnum and about a third of these are found growing in bogs with about ten species being found at Dove Stone, though many are now rare.
Sphagnum on Dove Stone’s bogs has been lost through pollution, burning and overgrazing ( new Sphagnum growth is sensitive to grazing and trampling ), leaving exposed areas of peat that are more prone to further erosion. Re-vegetating eroded areas of Dove Stone’s bogs with different species of Sphagnum is a key part of our habitat restoration work. A water saturated environment is a necessary condition in order for Sphagnum to thrive so you’d think that Dove Stone would naturally be an ideal place given how much rain we have !
Two scarce but important Sphagnums for us at Dove Stone are Sphagnum capillifolium and Sphagnum papillosum. All Sphagnums are peat forming but these two species are especially important for their peat-forming ability. Time for a quick mention on how peat is formed. Putting it very basically, peatbog has two layers, an upper, living active layer where Sphagnum shoots continually grow upwards and below this a waterlogged lower layer where the plant dies out to form peat deposits. To help create the most favourable conditions for Sphagnum we’ve undertaken work to block gullies to raise the water table which also helps to prevent further erosion.
Blanket bogs are an internationally important habitat. Did you know that there’s more carbon stored in bogs than there is in tropical rainforests? The UK has about 13% of the world’s blanket bog and about 10% of the UK’s land is covered with bog, making it our single most important carbon store. Healthy bogs are significant in relation to climate change and global warming; if blanket bogs become damaged then they can release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Simply put, peat is carbon.
Another key factor for the RSPB and United Utilities at Dove Stone is that a Sphagnum-rich and well vegetated blanket bog means less peat gets into our water which in turn means water that is easier to treat for drinking; treating water that has higher concentrations of carbon is financially more costly. And if that’s not enough to earn a place in the Dove Stone top-10, peat cores can provide us with historical information about climate and vegetation dating back 10,000 years. Amazing !
So there you have it, a well deserved place on the top-10. Sphagnum, it's a beautiful thing ! Thanks go to DaveO for expert input on the ins-and-outs of Sphagnum.