Synthesis: The case of peat

The cultural services of peatlands

In addition to supporting specialized biodiversity, peatlands provide a unique service such as long-term archives of environmental and human history. Because organic material accumulates continuously under waterlogged conditions and decomposes only partially, peatlands preserve a layered record of past ecosystems, climates, and human activities over thousands of years. These peat archives contain plant macrofossils, pollen, spores, charcoal, and atmospheric deposits that offer valuable insights into landscape development and environmental change. Researchers use these records to reconstruct past vegetation patterns, human land use, volcanic activity, atmospheric pollution, greenhouse gas concentrations, and climatic fluctuations. As ecosystems that effectively document their own development and that of their surrounding landscapes, peatlands are among the most important natural archives on Earth. Their exceptional capacity to preserve long-term ecological information not only enhances scientific understanding of past environmental change but also provides critical knowledge for predicting and managing future ecosystem responses to climate change and other human pressures.

Watch this interview with Roy van Beek, a leading expert in the field of landscape archaeology, to learn how cultural and archive services may contribute to a strategy for responsible peatland management.