Publications Section, Scottish Natural Heritage, （出版物,苏格兰自然遗产）.pdf

Boglands SCOTLAND’S LIVING LANDSCAPES Contents Introduction 1 Climate, Sphagnum and the Boglands 2 A blanket of bog-moss 4 Raised in the Lowlands 6 Walking on water into pre-history 8 The thin red line 8 Life on the boglands 10 It’s not all plants . . . 13 The ‘Dark Casket’ 14 Bogland distribution and landscapes 16 The changing pattern of pressures 18 Boglands – valuable wetlands, not wastelands 20 Introduction What single image encapsulates ‘Scotland’ for most people? Perhaps the swirl of tartan, or maybe Landseer’s famous red stag in ‘Monarch of the Glen’. For some it might be rolling moorland, for others perhaps ‘a wee dram’ of whisky, or an image of a small croft beneath a brooding sky and, with it, the sharp tang of peat-smoke. All these classic scenes have one thing in common – other than being quintessentially Scottish – yet this common element is so little regarded that few people now realise the major part it plays in Scottish life. It is the Scottish bogland. Dyes for tartan originate here, it is home to the red deer, the rolling moorland is part of it, whisky wouldn’t be the same without it, and the tang of peat smoke is, effectively, hewn from it. In addition to all this, it also forms an outstanding part of Scotland’s natural heritage.