Peatland

Studying peatland resilience across scales and discipline boundaries

Overview

The ERI Peatland team benefits from unrivalled access to The Flow Country peatlands of Caithness and Sutherland: covering 4000 km2, they represent largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe and a site of global significance, inscribed since 2024 as the world’s first and only UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Flow Country is also a changing landscape where large-scale restoration and infrastructure development are rolled out at pace, and where climate extremes like wildfires and droughts have become more frequent.

Our research seeks to provide underpinning evidence that can drive changes in policy and practice to ensure a resilient future for the Flow Country peatlands and rivers, and a just transition for its people.

The Peatland theme also facilitates access to the Flow Country for researchers from across the UK and abroad and coordinates the Flow Country Research Hub, a network of >60 organisations and stakeholders with an interest in the Flow Country peatlands.

“Science supporting the world’s peatland heritage”

Current Priorities

- We use a combination of field-based monitoring, controlled experiments, remote-sensing and modelling to assess how peatland biodiversity and processes respond to the compounding effects of land use and climate change, including droughts and wildfires.
- We work across disciplines and scales to build evidence on the nexus of environmental and societal changes associated with peatland management.
- We use a range of field and lab-based techniques to characterise organic matter and to measure carbon exchange between the terrestrial pool, freshwater ecosystems and the atmosphere.
- We use analytical chemistry to assess how land use change on peat-dominated catchments (restoration, wind farm construction) alters water quality and biodiversity in freshwater systems.
- We contribute to the development of innovative solutions where peatland management can support climate change mitigation, economic growth, circular economy and just transition for rural highland communities.
- We provide expertise to assess the economic and societal impacts linked with peatland degradation, restoration, and conservation, from the local scale to the international context.