Last month, LIFE IP Peatlands and People and Bord na Móna welcomed a group of students from St Mary's Academy CBS in Carlow to visit Ballycon Bog in Co. Offaly.

The students have been doing a class project on carbon sequestration and air quality. Peatlands are extremely important long-term stores of carbon, and healthy peatlands can help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is essential to combat global warming and climate change.

During the field trip led by Bord na Móna's Carbon Research Manager Stephen Barry, the class got to see a demonstration of manual closed chamber measurements.

The closed chamber method is a common technique to show the exchange of trace gases between the soil and the atmosphere. These measurements are key to monitoring the carbon storage capability of peatlands.

At Ballycon Bog, which was rewetted around 20 years ago, the class learned how to measure carbon dioxide and methane using this method.