An assessment of blanket mire degradation and Peatland Gully development in the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland

Wishart, Duncan; Warburton, Jeff

doi:10.1080/00369220118737121

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Iceland) and in Mediterranean Europe, to peatland (e.g. Wishart and Warburton, 2001). Spectacular permanent, dense gully networks can be found in badland areas in the Mediterranean (Figure 2.5.6 and 2.5.7) but also in other severely eroded areas such as in Iceland.…”

Section: Where Do Gullies Typically Occur In Europe?mentioning

confidence: 97%

Gully Erosion in Europe

Poesen

Vanwalleghem

Vente

et al. 2006

Soil Erosion in Europe

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Section: Where Do Gullies Typically Occur In Europe?mentioning

confidence: 97%

Gully Erosion in Europe

Poesen

Vanwalleghem

Vente

et al. 2006

Soil Erosion in Europe

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“…The underlying substrate for blanket peats tends to be a relatively impermeable material which, combined with a cold, wet climate provided conditions for peat formation. Wishart and Warburton (2001) noted that in the Cheviot Hills, northern England, gullies tended to become wider than they are deep with increasing distance downslope. Incision into the substrate is also important because it exposes hillslope minerals to the stream water in catchments where the substrate has been protected by the overlying peat blanket.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Erosion and natural revegetation associated with surface land drains in upland peatlands

Holden

Gascoign

Bosanko

2007

Earth Surf Processes Landf

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Open cut drains are the most frequently used drainage technique in peatlands and are common throughout the world. Land drains increase the drainage density and promote enhanced coupling of hillslope sediment sources with streams. They may be major sources of fine sediment to peatland stream systems but data on drain sediment production in peatlands are rare. Many drains are now being dammed by humans, yet some revegetate naturally. This paper presents a survey of the erosion and natural revegetation of peat drains related to variables such as slope, drainage area and shading. The paper also provides measured comparison of sediment flux from open drains, drains that have been blocked by peat dams, undisturbed subcatchments, and the catchment outlet. Natural infilling of drains was often found to occur on gentle slopes < < < < <4°. Drains on slopes < < < < <2° were rarely eroded, while drains on slopes > > > > >4° were rarely infilled. Nick-point retreat at the confluence of drains was often observed. Revegetation of drains was uncommon where drains have been cut or incised into the underlying mineral substrate. Where the drain floor was peat-based, revegetation was much more common. Revegetation of drain floors was affected by overhanging vegetation, which provided shading. Drain floors with less than 60% shading tended to have a greater vegetation cover than drains with 60-90% shading. However, drains that were almost totally shaded (> > > > >90%) had the greatest floor vegetation. The intact drains were found to be major sources of suspended sediment within the survey catchments, with 18·3% of the sediment originating from the unblocked drains which drained 7·3% of the area. The winter quarter of the year was more important than other seasons for producing suspended sediment, even though precipitation totals were not greatest during this period. Drains which had been dammed at intervals along their length using peat blocks had very low sediment yields. Even poorly dammed drains, where water could still flow along the full course of the drain, had 54 times less suspended sediment production than unblocked drains. Figure 1. Photographs of land drains in upland peat: (a) mobile peat on the floor of an open land drain; (b) a blocked drain with ponding likely to raise local water tables, and an escape route for water to re-wet the peat surface; (c) a poorly blocked drain with slumped peat where water is able to still travel through the drain channel. This figure is available in colour online atFigure 3. A plot of drain depth against peat depth for the surveyed cross-sections. The solid line indicates where peat depth equals drain depth.Figure 4. Example hydrographs and suspended sediment concentration (SSC) curves for a storm event on 1 January 2005. Note that each plot has discharge and SSC on different scales.

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“…In most upland areas of the UK and Ireland, extensive gullying of upland blanket peats provides evidence for historic or contemporary erosion of the peat mass (Bradshaw and McGee, 1988;Large and Hamilton, 1991;Grieve, Hipkin and Davidson, 1994;Tallis, 1997;Wishart and Warburton, 2001). Dating the onset of erosion is problematic for two reasons.…”

Section: Peat Erosion -Timescalesmentioning

confidence: 99%