BOGS! What? Why? Who cares? - response

I hope you have had a great week! This week, we are looking at bogs - what they are and why we should give a hoot. As usual, we'll just be going over basic concepts with the idea that - over time - we'll dig ourselves more deeply into concepts with a more gradual and stable understanding...... So, as usual, let's break it apart and put it back together again.

Bogs are a type of wetland so there's the first and perhaps most vital component to what it takes to be boggy if you will - WATER. Imagine 10,000 years ago.... I know you weren't alive as you know it, however if you close your eyes and look around this time in your imagination, you will see the end of the last Ice Age...... What does that look like? Well, you can imagine it.... glaciers are beginning to melt as Earth begins to warm. What does the surface of the Earth look like? probably nooks and crannies just about everywhere, demarcating the movement of tectonic plates beneath the surface of the Earth as well as the activity from precipitation and wind patterns over the ages. As the glaciers began to melt, many of these nooks in the surface of the Earth became saturated with water.

Thus, we have the beginning of the understood history of bogs. Take these saturated pools of water derived mostly or entirely from precipitation or in their primary formation - the glacial retreat. So, besides water, what does it take to make a bog? Bogs are distinct for the acidity of their water content, their low nutrient content and for their gradual accumulation of peat. Let's start with acidity and what that means. Over time, humans have developed a way to communicate how acidic or basic (non-acidic) a water-based solution is. When something is neither basic or acidic, it is neutral and has a pH of 7. We humans enjoy greater health when the environment in our body is more basic or alkaline. It may be easy to use this tidbit of information to assume that alkaline=good and acidic=bad, however let's keep it all in context. For our bodies, we could make that assumption, however it is still quite broad and neglects the specific understanding of our diverse body systems.... Take a look at our stomachs for example - - - - those are acidic environments within and necessarily so!!!! So, divorce yourself from seeing pH in black and white terms as it will help us learn about pH in a neutral manner - get it? :)

Okay, for the lexicon nerds out there, let's take a look at where the term pH came from..... found this straight-forward definition online:

The term "pH" comes from the German word "potenz," which means "power," combined with H, the element symbol for hydrogen, so pH is an abbreviation for "power of hydrogen.

So, the power of hydrogen!!!!!!!!! what in the heck does that have to do with anything? Let's go back to boggy things...... We know bogs need water, we know that they are distinct for the acidity of that water content.... Now we know acidity has something to do with pH. On the pH scale, things that are acidic have a pH less than 7 and things that are basic have a pH greater than 7.

ACIDIC < 7

BASIC/ALKALINE>7

So water that is acidic has (according to our definition above)..... a greater power of hydrogen, right? We can translate that simply to mean that acidic liquid has more hydrogen ions in it. Bogs have just that!

So, we have these water-saturated areas that are quite acidic. Over time, dead plant material accumulates in and around these wetlands. This process is what we call peatification or the formation of peat. If you've been near a peat bog, you've heard of peat and know that in some places (notably Scotland) dried peat is used often as a heat source. Peat is the accumulated dead plant material within these bogs. Look out under your tree and the wee piles of leaves that rest there will eventually break down into smaller and smaller units and inevitably those leaves will undergo a biodegrading process that we are familiar with in an environment. We talked about this process and how helpful FUNGI are in facilitating it a few weeks back; this familiar process takes oxygen and as a bi-product of decomposition - releases CO2.

Decomposition in a bog environment, however, happens differently. Given that these acidic bogs lack a great amount of OXYGEN (necessary for decomposition), what do you think happens? If you think that decomposition is limited/slowed, you're right. This plant matter that falls into the body of water accumulates and cannot fully decompose for the high acid content of the water and for the lack of oxygen. Over time, in most bogs, you will have the development of various mosses which are hearty and known for their ability to thrive in these acidic and damp conditions. The presence of mosses that can form in clumps or almost as a blanket over the bog can further acidify the water because (especially in the presence of Sphangnum mosses) their ability to absorb calcium and magnesium ions and release - guess what - hydrogen ions..... and we know with more hydrogen ions: _______________ ..............that's right.... more acidity (lower pH).

So, we know that bogs are areas that:

-are saturated with water

-accumulate dead plant matter

-encourage the concurrent growth of mosses and the increasing acidity level and low oxygen levels within the water

So, we have this acidic wetland area where the organic matter breaks down extremely slowly..... doesn't it seem like a 'dead' environment or an environment that is unfavorable? This is, to me, one of the great counter-intuitive aspects of bogs! Let's look at why this environment is so important for engineering a bio-diverse ecosystem as well as what's going on on an even larger, atmospheric level.

The plant-life that thrives around bogs is usually shorter, shrub-like plants, mosses that cleverly derive nutrition for their own growth - regardless of the high acid levels, and in some cases - particular fungi and microbes (though these usually require a certain amount of oxygen to be present to thrive). Acidic water which lacks oxygen saturation is not a great environment for decomposition and remember that it's that decomposition that happens on forest floors or in your backyard - - very often with the help of fungi and other great re-cyclers (worms and bugs) - it's that decomposition that provides nutrients for trees and plants etc. So the plants that have made a home for themselves around bogs have systems in place to extract what they need to continue to grow. One of the most present floral components in bogs, as mentioned a bit ago, is moss. Sphagnum moss is a particularly special and interesting plant. We know that this moss can increase the acidity of a bog, but what else makes it interesting?

Sphagnum moss is a genus of nearly 40 types of moss. We talked recently about taxonomic classifications..... The broadest classification for any organism is a domain and the most specific classification is a species. Sphagnum moss is a genus, which is the classification right before species - meaning that within the genus of Sphagnum mosses, you have almost 40 types of moss that are related in some way - but ultimately different enough to have their own species. These mosses are also called peat mosses and we've briefly met them here so we know - at this point - that they thrive in the specific conditions found in bog wetlands. We also know that Sphagnum mosses tend to acidify their surroundings by adding hydrogen ions to their surrounding water. Some of these sphagnum mosses thrive in super drenched environments and exist at deeper levels of a bog, while others thrive closer to the surface. If you were to take samples of the mosses at various levels and places within a single bog, you are likely to find numerous types of moss - all specializing in their own ways.

Sphagnum mosses have a fascinating structure starting with a top rosette section of leaves known as the capitulum. These leaves are usually green or green-ish and photosynthesize......They are living cells and differ from the other cells on a moss plant which are clear-ish structural cells called hyaline cells. Hyaline cells are extremely absorbent and give moss one of its special features as a great hydrology engineer. At the bottom of the mosses, you find a layer of dead or decomposing moss-material. Like everything else in a bog environment, decomposition happens slowly, but it is this layer within its own structure of moss - that through decomposition - provides the moss with nitrogen for the support of its own life cycle.

So you have cells that photosynthesize and provide the moss with energy and you have cells that hold onto water and you have continual renewal through the slow decomposition of the deeper layers of moss. This is extremely fascinating! The absorbent nature of moss, allows the wetland ecosystem to remain moist for longer. Healthy peat is 90% water and can hold up to 20x its weight in water! You may have seen gardening centers that sell peat as a topper for soils that have a lot of sand in them or that dry out quickly... Now we know why! Peat helps keep the moisture in and allows for the slow release of water as opposed to a quick passing through of water.

Because of the nature of bogs, decomposition of plant material is slowed WAY DOWN. We learned previously that decomposition in an oxygen rich environment creates bi-products such as CO2. In environments like forests, that CO2 is (ideally) outpaced by the bi-product of photosynthesis in trees - OXYGEN. This means that forests' NET production results in oxygen............ Bogs are also important in this carbon cycle, but because of a different mechanism. As a result of the slowing down of decomposition, the production of CO2 is also slowed down (slower decomposition= less CO2 production at any given time).

Carbon is stored in the bogs and is not released as quickly as it would be if it were to be released through an oxygen rich decomposition cycle. This means that bogs are a strong carbon sink, taking carbon out of the atmosphere for great lengths of time. We've discussed the importance of this especially at this juncture of time. Life on Earth (in this era) requires oxygen. If oxygen were to no longer be present on Earth, life as we know it, would completely change/cease) Through natural processes of decomposition and fire-cycles, CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Along with other gases, it is classified as a greenhouse gas for its tendency to let light through but also trap the heat that comes with that light - in our atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are necessary to a certain extent; imagine if NO HEAT were trapped within our atmosphere - it'd be mighty cold. The balance of temperature for the ecosystems necessary on Earth for plants and animals that now inhabit Earth - is vital. The increase of CO2 specifically via the actions of burning fossil fuels - threatens that tenuous relationship of life on Earth with specific temperatures.

We've learned about what bogs are, that they began forming around 10,000 years ago as the last ice age came to an end. We've learned that their acidic nature and their lack of oxygen presents a very low-nutrient based environment that prevents the full breakdown of most organic matter. This matter accumulates into what is known as peat. This environment is perfect for particular plants, including mosses - especially Sphagnum mosses, which have a miraculous ability to thrive and to retain water - making them what some call 'ecosystem engineers,' meaning that their presence closely determines what thrives in the environment of a bog.

I'd like to end by making the important note that bogs are not lifeless ecosystems. Indeed, there are many insects that live within boglands. These ecosystems are often important stopping grounds and nesting grounds for migratory birds, for moose and beavers and other large mammals too. As you read in the article, the draining of bogs and the planting of trees in their place not only eliminates the important bog environment, putting many creatures at risk for habitat loss and its consequences, but it releases a huge amount of CO2 into the air. This turns bogs from a carbon sink into a huge source of Carbon being released into the atmosphere.

Over time, peat that is pressed down and continues its slow decomposition - gets warmer. It is through this process that peat eventually transforms into coal (coalification). This process goes through many stages with increasing percentages of carbon. It is fascinating that something that begins as an organic material above ground, could eventually become something like coal. We may also expand our exploration of bogs and peat by looking into the incredible preservationists bogs are. Artifacts and creatures (to include humans) have been found in bogs around the world. Take a look at this link to learn more about the amazing preserving nature of bogs' acidic/low oxygen environment! I'd love to explore the concepts of coalification and bog-preservation more with you soon.

Back to bogs as ecosystems:

The article we read this week highlighted a statistic that I found both interesting and hopeful and that was - that bogs/peatlands that are being restored take about 10 years to return to a status of being effective participants in reducing the carbon-load of the atmosphere. This seems like a short time, however considering the state of the environment on Earth, it also seems slow-going. You now know the environmental requirements for a bog..... Geologically, most bogs are found in the Northern hemisphere that are cooler, however bogs have also been found in the warmer environments of Chile/Argentina/New Zealand and Tasmania - though the mosses that are found in these bogs are mostly different than our good ole Sphagnum mosses.

The most significant determining factor for the presence of a bog is what? Water...., so you can imagine environments and regions in which bogs could not thrive. Those environments have their own ecologies and we'll be looking at those in the coming weeks. Several of you have mentioned a great respect and awe for the variety of life that depends on boglands. I agree with you; it is amazing that an environment that has historically been seen as "a waste of space" can be so incredibly vital as a home and stopping ground for so many plants/animals/insects. So, too, is it incredible to see the statistics in this article about atmospheric readings around bogs - to see their success and importance as carbon sinks.

For us, for our environment, for the success of a global ecosystem that would allow life as we should know it to thrive - - bogs are strong and vital components. Thank you for all your insight and feedback this week. So many of you were inspired to share with me your learnings - which is always an honor.

Have a great week!

~Sarah