Welcome to the Peak District Welcome to the Peak District National ParkNational Park

Moorlands as Indicators of Climate Change InitiativeMoorlands as Indicators of Climate Change Initiative

Welcome to MICCI

This is a project designed for schools to investigate the interrelationship between the moorland

landscape and climate change

Chris Robinson Learning and Discovery Officer PDNPA

High Open Countryside

No normal farming

Created by humans

So What is ‘Moorland’?So What is ‘Moorland’?

Moorland EcologyMoorland Ecology

Characteristics and Types

HEIGHT: >250m above sea level

SOIL: Peat up to 4m thick

Vegetation

Peat

Gritstone bedrock

WINDY & WET: >1000mm/year

All types have impoverished flora

Harsh physical conditions

Poor soil structure and nutrient status

1. Heather moorland - most common, on gentler, relatively dry slopes

2. Grass moorland - coarse grasses such as mat grass, wet areas, peat <20cm allowing grass roots to penetrate

3. Cotton grass moorland - rare, wet areas, peat >70cm

4. Sphagnum bog - formerly 18 species, but pollution has reduced these to 3, of which only 1 is common. Very wet and acid. An absorbent, spongy mass. Note that 13% of world’s blanket bog is in UK

“The warming of the climate is unequivocal”IPCC report 2007(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

Climate Change – it’s definitely happening!Climate Change – it’s definitely happening!

Where do moorlands fit into the climate change debateWhere do moorlands fit into the climate change debate??

1. Peatlands are the single largest carbon reserve in the UK (3 billion tonnes of carbon) More carbon is stored in UK peat than in the forests of the UK and France combined.

2. A good peat bog actively “sequesters” carbon (locks it away) . Is a “CARBON SINK”

3. A damaged peat bog actively loses carbon to the atmosphere.(through erosion and oxidation).

Is a “CARBON SOURCE”

4. The warmer and drier the climate is the more erosion and fires there are. The more carbon turns into CO2.

Peat

Weathering of bedrock

Rain

Photosynthesis

Decomposition

Dissolved Inorganic Carbon DIC

Particulate Organic Carbon POC

Dissolved Organic Carbon DOC

CO2 INPUTS CO2 OUTPUTS

The Moorland Carbon CycleThe Moorland Carbon Cycle

Fluvial Flux (removed by water)

A healthy moorA healthy moor

Carbon flux prediction models (Dark Peak area)

Best case scenario Worst case scenario

= Carbon loss

= Carbon sink

Source: Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-View Sensor

(SeaWiFS) Project, NASA-GSFC, and ORBIMAGE,

18 April 2003

Fire on Bleaklow

Satellite view of Northern Britain

Fire can turn a healthy moor into an unhealthy one!

Aerial view of fire damage and subsequent erosion on Bleaklow

It’s not all bad though!

The Moors for the Future partnership have managed

to reseed this area of erosion on Sykes Moor and many others

Large areaof bare peat

GPS position - GarminAltitude - GarminAspect - Compass

Elevation

Grid reference

Gradient – Clinometer + tape measure + 2 metre rules

Total length of soil spikeSoil depth – soil spikeSoil temperature - thermometer

length of soil spike above ground

Holes to let water inMeasure this!

Dip well for gauging water table

1 metre

5 cm

Metre rule

Kitchen waste pipeSurface of Peat

Holes to let water inMeasure this!

Nitrate level – nitrate kitDOC – water bottle

12 3

Temperature – pH meterpH – pH meter

Protective cover

On/off switch

Soil pH – auger and pH kit

Vegetation record - quadrats

Quadrats Heather Bilberry Crowberry

1 lll lllll ll

2 ll l

3 l

4 l l

5 l

2 different plants, 2 tally marks1 plant, 1 tally mark

How do we record and share the results?How do we record and share the results?

Who else is involved?Who else is involved?Carlton High

Honley High

Longley Park

King Ecgberts

St John HoughtonHeanorgateLong Eaton

West Hill

Glossopdale

Chapel High

Painsley Catholic College

What sort of conservation work will our experiments inform?What sort of conservation work will our experiments inform?

Youth Rangers using Geojute fabric to stabilise planting

Discoveries you make about the state of the peat will helpscientists from Moors for the Future decide on the most appropriate conservation methods for the moorland.