Annually, approximately 15% of Ireland’s electricity requirement is provided through the combustion of 3 × 10 tonnes of peat. While literature on the coal-fired power generation is quite abundant, studies on the peat-fired power generation industry from the radiological point of view are scarce. A study of the largest Irish peat-fired power plant was initiated to review the potential occupation...

Peat bogs represent unique ecosystems that are under particular threat from fragmentation due to peat harvesting, with only 38% of the original peatland in Europe remaining intact and unaffected by peat cutting, drainage and silviculture. In this study, we have used microsatellite markers to determine levels and patterns of genetic diversity in both cut and uncut natural populations of the peat...

Water containing ultra-fine bubbles (UFB) may promote plant growth. But, as UFBs are too small to distinguish from other impurities in a nutrient solution, it is not known if UFBs survive transport from the water source to the rhizosphere. Here we use the freeze-fracture replica method and a transmission electron microscope (TEM) to observe UFBs in the nutrient solutions used in a crop-growing ...

This study aimed to verify the biological efficiency and production flushes of Agaricus blazei strains on different casing layers during 90 cultivation days. Four casing layers were used: mixture of subsoil and charcoal (VCS), lime schist (LSC), São Paulo peat (SPP) and Santa Catarina peat (SCP); and two genetically distant A. blazei strains. The fungus was grown in composted substratum and, af...

Peat replacement is an increasing demand in containerized and transplant production, due to the environmental constraints associated to peat use. However, despite the wide information concerning the use of alternative materials as substrates, it is very complex to establish the best materials and mixtures. This work evaluates the use of mixture design and surface response methodology in a peat ...

The Kolyma River in northeast Siberia is among the six largest Arctic rivers and drains a region underlain by vast deposits of Holocene-aged peat and Pleistoceneaged loess known as yedoma, most of which is currently stored in ice-rich permafrost throughout the region. These peat and yedoma deposits are important sources of dissolved organic matter (DOM) to inland waters that in turn play a sign...

Regular landscape patterning arises from spatially-dependent feedbacks, and can undergo catastrophic loss in response to changing landscape drivers. The central Everglades (Florida, USA) historically exhibited regular, linear, flow-parallel orientation of high-elevation sawgrass ridges and low-elevation sloughs that has degraded due to hydrologic modification. In this study, we use a meta-ecosy...

The composition of a peatland plant community has considerable effect on a range of ecosystem functions. Peatland plant community structure is predicted to change under future climate change, making the quantification of the direction and magnitude of this change a research priority. We subjected intact, replicated vegetated poor fen peat monoliths to elevated temperatures, increased atmospheri...

The main aim of this study was to determine, during extreme hydrological conditions, the source(s) of acids, sulphate and metals (alkali and alkaline earths) in the Munsala stream (western Finland) draining mainly acid sulphate soil, peat and till. Samples were collected at 6 sites along the main stem on 3 high-flow and 3 low-flow events, and were analysed for the required chemical and isotopic...

Zoltai, S.C. 1995. Regional variations in peatland ecosystems of west-central Canada through time. Gunneria 70: 35-42. Peatland ecosystems respond to major changes in their environment induced by prolonged changes in climate. In the western boreal region of Canada, permafrost occurs only in Sphagnum-dominated peatlands. In the north, the palsas and peat plateaus are associated with well-defined...