Mind bog-gling new study reveals Marsden Moor stores over a million tonnes of carbon - National Trust

To mark World Bog Day (Sunday 28 July), peatland experts working together with the National Trust at Marsden Moor in West Yorkshire have found that the moor’s peat stores at least one million tonnes of carbon, further evidence that peatlands can play a crucial role in tackling climate change.

Best known as a popular spot for tourists and walkers in West Yorkshire, and sandwiched between the conurbations of Leeds and Manchester, this 2,300-hectare moorland (5,683 acres) has provided weekend fresh air for generations of mill and office workers.

Now there is evidence that these windswept uplands hold between 1 to 1.5 million tonnes of carbon in their ‘millennia-old’ peat, highlighting the vital role that healthy blanket bogs play in the tackling the climate emergency. It also shows the importance of preserving and restoring the moorlands, to prevent vast amounts of carbon from being released into the atmosphere.

The carbon estimate was obtained by a team of researchers from the School of Geography at the University of Leeds, led by palaeoecologist Dr Antony Blundell, working together with nine dedicated community volunteers and Rangers from the National Trust to carry out an assessment of peat depths and stratigraphy (the make-up of different layers of peat which were created over time).

Across more than 100 days over a four-year period, the team measured the depth of the peat at 2,290 set locations across the entire Marsden Moor estate – covering nearly every hectare of the windswept moorlands.

This research provided an accurate estimate of the total amount of peat across the estate - around 21 million cubic tonnes – allowing the team to calculate the amount of carbon stored as between 1 and 1.5 million tonnes.