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  • NEWS FEATURE

How peat could protect the planet

Across the globe, drained peatlands are emitting billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. Scotland has emerged as a leader in efforts to restore bogs to health.
  1. Virginia Gewin

    1. Virginia Gewin, a science journalist in Portland, Oregon, reported this story with support from the European Geosciences Union.

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Pools of water in peatland under a cloudy sky with a hill in the background

Scotland’s Flow Country is the world’s largest area of blanket bogs. Credit: David Robertson/Alamy

On a chilly September morning in Scotland’s northern highlands, a giant excavator rumbles back and forth across peatlands that stretch to the horizon. As the wind whips across the mossy terrain, the machine’s operator is undoing decades of damage by smoothing out the drainage ditches that scar the landscape.

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Nature 578, 204-208 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00355-3

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