Читать книгу Walking on the West Pennine Moors. 30 walks around moorland Lancashire онлайн

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Plantlife

The West Pennine Moors area is recognised as a Core Biodiversity Resource at both regional and sub-regional levels, supporting a range of UK Priority Habitats and Species. The moors and farmland that surround and meld with the West Pennine Moors have a high level of biodiversity. Where the moors are unenclosed, there are widespread areas of blanket bog on deep peat soils.

Repeatedly modified by grazing, burning and attempts at drainage, the moors are in places dominated by purple moor-grass, along with distinctive species such as cotton-grass, heather, cross-leaved heath, cranberry and numerous species of sphagnum moss, as well as less prevalent plants like bog rosemary. Elsewhere there are rolling areas of upland heath, acidic grassland and upland flushes.

The extensive hill peat is of considerable importance for preserved plant and animal remains, and as a means of providing information about past climates and weather patterns. Most importantly, it has a significant role in future carbon dioxide sequestration to mitigate climate change, and in water catchment.