The Peat Hub Ireland Peatland Glossary comprises over 120 terms listed alphabetically relating to the sustainable management of peatlands in Ireland. The glossary is a living text which aims to provide access to up-to-date information, build shared understanding and communicate new scientific knowledge and discovery about peatlands.

Check out the Peat Hub Ireland Glossary terms of the week below!

Appropriate Assessment

A multi-staged process for ascertaining whether a plan or project, alone or in combination with other plans or projects, will adversely affect the integrity of the Natura 2000 Network of internationally important sites. Required under Article 6(3) of the Habitats Directive.

DCHG, 2017

Artificial Light At Night

The inappropriate or excessive use of artificial light at night. Manifesting as glare, skyglow, light trespass and light clutter.

PHI Researcher Survey

Biocultural Diversity

Biocultural diversity refers to the continuing co-evolution and adaptation between biological and cultural diversities. It also involves diversities of place and reflects people's ways of living with nature. This co-evolution has generated local ecological knowledge and practices across generations that allow societies to manage their resources sustainably while also maintaining cultural identity and social structures.

Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, 2023

Biodiversity

A general term used to describe all aspects of biological diversity including the number of species present in a given environment, the genetic diversity present within a species and the number of different ecosystems present within a given environment.

DCHG, 2017

Blanket Bog

Ombrotrophic peatland type forming an extensive landscape in cool regions of high rainfall or humidity and a low level of evapotranspiration, allowing the peat to accumulate not only in wet hollows but over large expanses of undulating ground.

PHI, 2024

Bog

Ombrotrophic peatland type with the surface above the surrounding terrain or otherwise isolated from laterally moving mineral-rich soil waters.

Hydin and Jeglum, 2006

Bryophytes

Mosses, liverworts and hornworts. Bryophytes reproduce from spores held in capsules, rather than seeds formed by flowers. Peatlands are home to a diversity of bryophytes, and bryophytes are important in the ecological functioning of peatlands.

PHI Researcher Survey