WJEC A-Level Geography 601-8455-3
Coastal Landscapes
Glaciated Landscapes
Tectonic Hazards
Changing Places
Water and Carbon Cycles
Global Migration
Global Governance of the Oceans
EcosystemsContemporary theme
Economic Growth and Challenge: IndiaContemporary theme
Economic Growth and Challenge: ChinaContemporary theme
Development in an African ContextContemporary theme
Energy Challenges and DilemmasContemporary theme
Weather and ClimateContemporary theme
Fieldwork and Geographical Skills
Water and Carbon Cycles
Changing carbon stores in peatlands
- 2 things to know
- A2 Unit 3
Overview
How peat forms, roughly how fast peat accumulates and plant most associated with the building of British blanket bog.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Why are anaerobic conditions essential to peat formation?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What is peat?
Model answer
Peat is partly decomposed plant material that has accumulated in waterlogged ground where a lack of oxygen has prevented it from breaking down fully.
- 2
Explain how peat forms.
Model answer
In permanently waterlogged ground dead vegetation is submerged before it can decay, so organic matter accumulates faster than decomposers can remove it.
- 3
Why are anaerobic conditions essential to peat formation?
Model answer
Decomposer bacteria and fungi need oxygen to respire, and standing water fills the pore spaces and excludes it, so decomposition almost stops.
- 4
State roughly how fast peat accumulates.
Model answer
About a millimetre a year, so a metre of peat represents around a thousand years of accumulation.
- 5
Name the plant most associated with the building of British blanket bog.
Model answer
Sphagnum moss.
- 6
Why are peatlands important out of all proportion to their area?
Model answer
They cover only a few percent of the world's land surface yet hold roughly a third of all soil carbon.
Other ways to work this
The same content, four other ways.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Every question in Water and Carbon Cycles, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.