In the Bog, The ecology, landscape, archaeology and heritage of peatlands: Part 1: History & Heritage

The ’In the Bog’ 2014 Sheffield conference addressed the themes of ’the ecology, landscape, archaeology and heritage of peatlands’. Contributions from around the world considered issues of: 1. The ecology of peatlands. 2. Their histories of utilisation and exploitation. 3. Their contributions to ’ecosystem services’. And importantly, 4. Of their restoration. Globally, peatlands have shrunk dramatically over perhaps 200 to 300 years, and this must be a major contribution to global environmental change. Furthermore, the removal and degradation of peatlands has severely compromised the planetary ability to respond to and mitigate problems such as climate change. This is volume 1 of the book of the proceedings which focusses on the history and heritage of peatlands. The volume was delayed allowing for submission of chapters by various authors, but then for other reasons including workloads, university priorities etc. Nevertheless, the unique collection of contributions to the two books, ’In the Bog: The ecology, landscape, archaeology and heritage of peatlands Part 1: History & Heritage’, and ’In the Bog: The ecology, landscape, archaeology and heritage of peatlands Part 2. Ecology, Management & Conservation’, makes a remarkable contribution to the literature on peat and peatlands. The collections run from history and heritage through to science and conservation management, and with a global coverage. This first volume is dedicated to Dr Alasdair Ross who passed away in 2017.