Editing Peat (section)

=== Peat archives ===
Authors Rydin and Jeglum in ''Biology of Habitats'' described the concept of peat archives, a phrase coined by influential peatland scientist [[Harry Godwin]] in 1981.<ref>{{cite book |last=Godwin |first=Harry Sir |author-link=Harry Godwin |title=The archives of the peat bogs |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1981 |location=Cambridge}}</ref><ref name="Rydin_2013">{{cite book |first1=Håkan |last1=Rydin |first2=John K. |last2=Jeglum |date=18 July 2013 |pages=400 |title=The Biology of Peatlands |edition=2 |series=Biology of Habitats |orig-year=8 Jun 2006 |publisher=University of Oxford Press |isbn=978-0198528722 |ref={{SfnRef|Rydin|Jeglum|2014}}}}</ref><ref name="Keddy_2010">{{citation |last=Keddy |first=P.A. |year=2010 |title=Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation |edition=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK. |pages=323–325}}</ref>

{{blockquote|sign=|source=Rydin, 2013|In a peat profile there is a fossilized record of changes over time in the vegetation, pollen, spores, animals (from microscopic to the giant elk), and archaeological remains that have been deposited in place, as well as pollen, spores and particles brought in by wind and weather. These remains are collectively termed the peat archives.}}

In ''Quaternary Palaeoecology'', first published in 1980, Birks and Birks described how [[Paleoecology|paleoecological]] studies "of peat can be used to reveal what plant communities were present (locally and regionally), what period each community occupied, how environmental conditions changed, and how the environment affected the ecosystem in that time and place."<ref name="Rydin_2013"/><ref name="Birks_1980">{{cite book |title=Quaternary Palaeoecology |first1= Harry John Betteley |last1=Birks |first2=Hilary H. |last2=Birks |publisher=Blackburn Press |orig-year=1980 |year=2004 |pages=289 pages}}</ref>

Scientists continue to compare modern [[Mercury (element)|mercury]] (Hg) accumulation rates in bogs with historical natural archives records in peat bogs and lake sediments to estimate the potential human impacts on the [[biogeochemical]] cycle of mercury, for example.<ref name="Biester_Bindler_2009">{{citation |url=http://www.metla.fi/julkaisut/workingpapers/2009/mwp128-13.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150916091927/http://www.metla.fi/julkaisut/workingpapers/2009/mwp128-13.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-16 |url-status=live |series=Working Papers of the Finnish Forest Research Institute |number=128|title=Modelling Past Mercury Deposition from Peat Bogs – The Influence of Peat Structure and 210Pb Mobility |first1=Harald |last1=Biester |first2=Richard |last2=Bindler |access-date=21 October 2014 |year=2009}}</ref> Over the years, different dating models and technologies for measuring date sediments and peat profiles accumulated over the last 100–150 years, have been used, including the widely used vertical distribution of 210Pb, the [[inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry]] (ICP-SMS),<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.elmvale.org/elmvalefoundation/publications/A64.pdf |url-status=live|journal=Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta|volume=74|year=2010|pages=1963–1981|title=The isotopic evolution of atmospheric Pb in central Ontario since AD 1800, and its impacts on the soils, waters, and sediments of a forested watershed, Kawagama Lake|first1=W.|last1=Shotyk|first2=M.|last2=Krachler|issue=7 |doi=10.1016/j.gca.2010.01.009 |bibcode=2010GeCoA..74.1963S |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206132705/http://www.elmvale.org/elmvalefoundation/publications/A64.pdf|archive-date=2023-02-06}}</ref> and more recently the initial penetration (IP).<ref>{{cite conference| title=Modeling the downward transport of 210Pb in mires and repercussions on the deriv| conference=EGU General Assembly |bibcode=2013EGUGA..1511054O}}</ref>

==== Bog bodies ====
{{See also|Bog body}}
Naturally mummified human bodies, often called "[[bog bodies]]" have been found in various places in Scotland, England, Ireland, and especially northern Germany and Denmark. They are almost perfectly preserved by the [[Tanning (leather)|tanning]] properties of the acidic water, as well as by the antibiotic properties of the organic component sphagnan.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Painter |first=Terence J. |title=Lindow man, tollund man and other peat-bog bodies: The preservative and antimicrobial action of Sphagnan, a reactive glycuronoglycan with tanning and sequestering properties |journal=Carbohydrate Polymers |date=1 January 1991 |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=123–142 |doi=10.1016/0144-8617(91)90028-B |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0144-8617%2891%2990028-B |access-date=29 October 2023 |issn=0144-8617}}</ref> A famous example is the [[Tollund Man]] in Denmark. Having been discovered in 1950 after being mistaken for a recent murder victim, he was exhumed for scientific purposes and dated to have lived during the 4th century BC. Before that, another bog body, the [[Elling Woman]], had been discovered in 1938 in the same bog about {{Convert|60|m}} from the Tollund Man. She is believed to have lived during the late 3rd century BC and was a ritual sacrifice. In the Bronze and Iron Ages, people used peat bogs for rituals to nature gods and spirits.<ref>{{Cite web |title=NOVA &#124; The Perfect Corpse &#124; PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bog/ |website=pbs.org}}</ref>