1.
Sphagnum
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Sphagnum is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as peat moss. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions, hence, as sphagnum moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger mires, both raised bogs and blanket bogs. These peat accumulations then provide habitat for an array of peatland plants, including sedges and ericaceous shrubs, as well as orchids. Sphagnum and the formed from it do not decay readily because of the phenolic compounds embedded in the mosss cell walls. In addition, bogs, like all wetlands, develop anaerobic soil conditions, Peat moss can also acidify its surroundings by taking up cations, such as calcium and magnesium, and releasing hydrogen ions. Under the right conditions, peat can accumulate to a depth of many meters, different species of Sphagnum have different tolerance limits for flooding and pH, so any one peatland may have a number of different Sphagnum species. Individual peat moss plants consist of a stem, with tightly arranged clusters of branch fascicles usually consisting of two or three spreading branches and two to four hanging branches. The top of the plant, or capitulum, has compact clusters of young branches, along the stem are scattered leaves of various shapes, named stem leaves, the shape varies according to species. The leaves consist of two kinds of cells, small, green, living cells, and large, clear, structural, the latter have the large water-holding capacity. Sphagnum, like all other plants, has an alternation of generations, like other bryophytes. Unlike other mosses, the long-lived gametophytes do not rely upon rhizoids to assist in water uptake, Sphagnum species can be unisexual or bisexual, In North America, 80% of Sphagnum species are unisexual. Gametophytes have substantial asexual reproduction by fragmentation, producing much of the material in sphagnum peatlands. Swimming sperm fertilize eggs contained in archegonia that remain attached to the female gametophyte, the sporophyte is relatively short-lived, and consists almost entirely of a shiny green, spherical spore capsule that becomes black with spores. Sporophytes are raised on stalks to facilitate spore dispersal, but unlike other mosses, the spores germinate to produce minute protonemae, which start as filaments, can become thalloid, and can produce a few rhizoids. Soon afterwards the protonema develops buds and these differentiate into its characteristic, erect, leafy, branched gametophyte with chlorophyllose cells and this stage dominates the environment where Sphagnum grows, obliterating and burying the protonema and eventually building up into layers of dead moss called peat. Carpets of living Sphagnum may be attacked by fungi, and one fungus that is also a mushroom, Sphagnurus paluster. It is unknown whether the stage can produce such gemmae. Peat moss can be distinguished from other species by its unique branch clusters
2.
Westhay
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Westhay is a village in Somerset, England. It is situated in the parish of Meare,4 miles north west of Glastonbury on the Somerset Levels, the name means The west field that is enclosed by hedges from the Old English west and haga. Westhay is a village on the River Brue in typical Somerset rhyne country. The site of the lake-village is marked by groups of mounds, nearby was the Peat Moors Centre which closed down in the autumn of 2009. The prehistoric Sweet Track and Post Track run from the village southwards towards Shapwick, the village is close to Westhay Moor and Westhay Heath, which have both been designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Westhay is serviced by one pub, Westhay is well known as the site of the Starling Roost featured on many TV wildlife programmes. The roost is in National wildlife reserves such as Westhay Moor, Ham Wall, the area also contains one third of the UK breeding population of Bitterns and the only known UK breeding populations of Great White Egret and Little Bittern
3.
Somerset Levels
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The Somerset Levels are a coastal plain and wetland area of Somerset, South West England, running south from the Mendips to the Blackdown Hills. The Mendip Hills separate the Somerset Levels from the North Somerset Levels, the Somerset Levels consist of marine clay levels along the coast and inland peat-based moors, agriculturally, about 70 per cent is used as grassland and the rest is arable. Willow and teazel are grown commercially and peat is extracted, a Palaeolithic flint tool found in West Sedgemoor is the earliest indication of human presence in the area. The Levels were the location of the Glastonbury Lake Village as well as two Lake villages at Meare Lake, several settlements and hill forts were built on the natural islands of slightly raised land, including Brent Knoll and Glastonbury. In the Roman period sea salt was extracted and a string of settlements were set up along the Polden Hills. The discovery at Shapwick of 9,238 silver Roman coins, a number of Saxon charters document the incorporation of areas of moor in estates. In 1685, the Battle of Sedgemoor was fought in the Bussex area of Westonzoyland at the conclusion of the Monmouth Rebellion, as a result of the wetland nature of the Levels, the area contains a rich biodiversity of national and international importance. It supports a vast variety of plant and bird species and is an important feeding ground for birds and includes 32 Sites of Special Scientific Interest, the area has been extensively studied for its biodiversity and heritage, and has a growing tourism industry. People have been draining the area since before the Domesday Book, in the Middle Ages, the monasteries of Glastonbury, Athelney and Muchelney were responsible for much of the drainage. The artificial Huntspill River was constructed during the Second World War as a reservoir, the Sowy River between the River Parrett and Kings Sedgemoor Drain was completed in 1972, water levels are managed by the Levels internal drainage boards. Discussions have taken place concerning the possibility of obtaining World Heritage Site status for the Somerset Levels as a cultural landscape. It was suggested that if this bid were successful it could improve flood control, but only if wetland fens were created again, the plans were abandoned in 2010. The Somerset Levels form a region that has been designated as a national character area – No.142 – by Natural England. The Levels are mainly flat areas of plains and a coastal sand and clay barrier. There are some slightly raised parts, called burtles, as well as higher ridges, the Levels are about 20 feet above mean sea level. The general elevation inland is 10 to 12 feet O. D. with peak tides of 25 to 26 feet O. D. recorded at Bridgwater, large areas of peat were laid down in the Brue Valley during the Quaternary period after the ice sheets melted. The area is prone to floods of fresh water and occasional salt water inundations. Another severe flood occurred in 1872–1873, when over 107 square miles were underwater from October to March, Glastonbury Tor is composed of Upper Lias Sand
4.
Lewis
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Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides. The total area of Lewis is 683 square miles, Lewis is, in general, the lower-lying part of the island, the other part, Harris, is more mountainous. Due to its flatter, more land, Lewis contains three-quarters of the population of the Western Isles. The islands diverse habitats are home to an assortment of flora and fauna, such as the eagle, red deer and seal. Lewis has a Presbyterian tradition and a rich history and it was once part of the Norse Kingdom of Mann and the Isles. Today, life is different from elsewhere in Scotland, with Sabbath observance. Lewis has a cultural heritage as can be seen from its myths and legends as well as the local literary. The Gaelic name Leòdhas may be derived from Norse Ljoðahús, although other origins have been suggested – most notably the Gaelic leogach and it is probably the place referred to as Limnu by Ptolemy, which also means marshy. It is also known as the Isle of Lewis, another name usually used in a cultural or poetic context is Eilean an Fhraoich. Although this refers to the whole of the island of Lewis and Harris, the earliest archaeological remains date from about 5,000 years ago. At that time, people began to settle in permanent farms rather than following their herds, the small houses of these people have been found throughout the Western Isles, in particular, at Dail Mhor, Carloway. The more striking great monuments of this period are the temples, about 500 BC, island society moved into the Iron Age. The buildings became larger and more prominent, culminating in the brochs – circular, the best remaining example of a broch in Lewis is at Dùn Chàrlabhaigh. The Scots arrived during the first centuries AD, bringing the Gaelic language with them, as Christianity began to spread through the islands in the 6th and later centuries, following Columban missionaries, Lewis was inhabited by the Picts. In the 9th century AD, the Vikings began to settle on Lewis, the Norse invaders intermarried with local people and abandoned their pagan beliefs. At that time, rectangular buildings began to round ones. Lewis became part of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, the Lewis chessmen, found on the island in 1831, date from the time of Viking rule. The people were called the Norse Gaels or Gall-Ghàidheil, reflecting their mixed Scandinavian/Gaelic background, the Norse language persists in many island placenames and some personal names to this day, although the latter are fairly evenly spread across the Gàidhealtachd
5.
East Frisia
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East Frisia or Eastern Friesland is a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony. It is the section of Frisia between West Frisia in the Netherlands and North Frisia in Schleswig-Holstein. Administratively Ostfriesland belongs to three districts, namely Aurich, Leer, Wittmund and to the city of Emden, there are 465,000 people living in an area of 3,144.26 square kilometres. There is a chain of islands off the coast, called the East Frisian Islands and these islands are Borkum, Juist, Norderney, Baltrum, Langeoog, Spiekeroog and Wangerooge. The geographical region of East Frisia was inhabited in Paleolithic times by reindeer hunters of the Hamburg culture, later there were Mesolithic and Neolithic settlements of various cultures. The period after prehistory can only be reconstructed from archaeological evidence, access to the early history of East Frisia is possible in part through archaeology and in part through the studying of external sources such as Roman documents. The first proven historical event was the arrival of a Roman fleet under Drusus in 12 BC, the earlier settlements, known solely through material remnants but whose peoples name for themselves remains unknown, led up to the invasion of Germanic tribes belonging to the Ingvaeonic group. Those were Chauci mentioned by Tacitus, and Frisians, the region between the rivers Ems and Weser was thereupon inhabited by the Chauci, however, after the second century AD there is no mention of the Chauci. They were partly displaced by Frisian expansion after about 500, and were partially absorbed into the Frisian society. Saxons also settled the region and the East Frisian population of medieval times is based on a mixture of Frisian, nevertheless, the Frisian element is predominant in the coastal area, while the population of the higher Geest area expresses more Saxon influence. Historical information becomes clearer by early Carolingian time, when a Frisian kingdom united the area from present-day West Frisia throughout East Frisia up to the river Weser. It was ruled by kings like the famous Radbod whose known names were mentioned in folk tales until recent times. Frisia was a kingdom, and it was crushed by Pippin of Herstal in 689. East Frisia then became part of the Frankish Empire, charles the Great then divided East Frisia into two counties. At this time, Christianization by the missionaries Liudger and Willehad started, one part of East Frisia became a part of the diocese of Bremen, with the decay of the Carolingian empire, East Frisia lost its former bindings, and a unity of independent self-governed districts was established. Their elections were held every year to choose the Redjeven, who had to be judges as well as administrators or governors and this system prevented the establishment of a feudalistic system in East Frisia during mediaeval times. Frisians regarded themselves as people not obliged to any foreign authority. This period is called the time of the Friesische Freiheit and is represented by the still well-known salute Eala Frya Fresena that affirmed the non-existence of any feudality
6.
Decomposition
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Decomposition is the process by which organic substances are broken down into simpler matter. The process is a part of nutrient cycle and is essential for recycling the matter that occupies physical space in the biosphere. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death, animals, such as worms, also help decompose the organic materials. Organisms that do this are known as decomposers, although no two organisms decompose in the same way, they all undergo the same sequential stages of decomposition. The science which studies decomposition is referred to as taphonomy from the Greek word τάφος taphos. One can differentiate abiotic from biotic decomposition, the former means degradation of a substance by chemical or physical processes, e. g. hydrolysis. The latter means the metabolic breakdown of materials into simpler components by living organisms and these processes release gases, such as cadaverine and putrescine, that are the chief source of the unmistakably putrid odor of decaying animal tissue. Prime decomposers are bacteria or fungi, though larger scavengers also play an important role in decomposition if the body is accessible to insects, mites and other animals. The most important arthropods that are involved in the process include carrion beetles, mites, the most important non-insect animals that are typically involved in the process include mammal and bird scavengers, such as coyotes, dogs, wolves, foxes, rats, crows and vultures. Some of these scavengers also remove and scatter bones, which they ingest at a later time, aquatic and marine environments have break-down agents that include bacteria, fish, crustaceans, Diptera larvae and other carrion scavengers. Five general stages are used to describe the process of decomposition in vertebrate animals, fresh, bloat, active and advanced decay, the general stages of decomposition are coupled with two stages of chemical decomposition, autolysis and putrefaction. These two stages contribute to the process of decomposition, which breaks down the main components of the body. The fresh stage begins immediately after the heart stops beating, from the moment of death, the body begins cooling or warming to match the temperature of the ambient environment, during a stage called algor mortis. Shortly after death, within three to six hours, the tissues become rigid and incapable of relaxing, during a stage called rigor mortis. Once the heart stops, the blood can no longer supply oxygen or remove carbon dioxide from the tissues and this process is known as autolysis. Visible changes caused by decomposition are limited during the fresh stage and these multiply, consuming the bodys carbohydrates, lipids, and proteins, to produce a variety of substances including propionic acid, lactic acid, methane, hydrogen sulfide, and ammonia. The process of microbial proliferation within a body is referred to as putrefaction and leads to the stage of decomposition. Blowflies and flesh flies are the first carrion insects to arrive, the bloat stage provides the first clear visual sign that microbial proliferation is underway
7.
Vegetation
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Vegetation is assemblages of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent. It is broader than the flora which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns, all are encompassed by the term vegetation. The vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species, or an aspect of the assemblage. The contemporary use of vegetation approximates that of ecologist Frederic Clements term earth cover, Natural vegetation refers to plant life undisturbed by humans in its growth and which is controlled by the climatic conditions of that region. The distinction between vegetation and flora was first made by Jules Thurmann, prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately, and still are in some contexts. Augustin de Candolle also made a distinction, but he used the terms station and habitation. Later, the concept of vegetation would influence the usage of the term biome, other concepts similar to vegetation are physiognomy of vegetation and formation. Departing from Linnean taxonomy, Humboldt established a new science, dividing plant geography between taxonomists who studied plants as taxa and geographers who studied plants as vegetation. The physiognomic approach in the study of vegetation is common among biogeographers working on vegetation on a world scale, the concept vegetation type is more ambiguous. For some authors, it includes, besides physiognomy, floristic, furthermore, the phytosociological approach in the study of vegetation relies upon a fundamental unit, the plant association, which is defined upon flora. An influential, clear and simple scheme for types of vegetation was produced by Wagner & von Sydow. Like all the systems, plant communities are temporally and spatially dynamic. Dynamism in vegetation is defined primarily as changes in species composition and/or vegetation structure, temporally, a large number of processes or events can cause change, but for sake of simplicity they can be categorized roughly as either abrupt or gradual. Abrupt changes are referred to as disturbances, these include things like wildfires, high winds, landslides, floods, avalanches. Their causes are external to the community—they are natural processes occurring independently of the natural processes of the community. Such events can change vegetation structure and composition very quickly and for time periods
8.
Bog
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A bog is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss. It is one of the four types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, quagmire, and muskeg and they are frequently covered in ericaceous shrubs rooted in the sphagnum moss and peat. The gradual accumulation of decayed plant material in a bog functions as a carbon sink, Bogs occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic and low in nutrients. In some cases, the water is derived entirely from precipitation, water flowing out of bogs has a characteristic brown colour, which comes from dissolved peat tannins. In general, the low fertility and cool climate results in relatively slow plant growth, large areas of landscape can be covered many metres deep in peat. Bogs have distinctive assemblages of animal, fungal and plant species, Bogs are widely distributed in cold, temperate climes, mostly in boreal ecosystems in the Northern Hemisphere. The worlds largest wetland is the bogs of the Western Siberian Lowlands in Russia. Large peat bogs also occur in North America, particularly the Hudson Bay Lowland and they are less common in the Southern Hemisphere, with the largest being the Magellanic moorland, comprising some 44,000 square kilometres. Sphagnum bogs were widespread in northern Europe but have often been cleared and drained for agriculture, a 2014 expedition leaving from Itanga village, Republic of the Congo discovered a peat bog as big as England which stretches into neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. There are many highly specialised animals, fungi and plants associated with bog habitat, most are capable of tolerating the combination of low nutrient levels and waterlogging. Sphagnum moss is generally abundant, along with ericaceous shrubs, the shrubs are often evergreen, which is understood to assist in conservation of nutrients. In drier locations, evergreen trees can occur, in case the bog blends into the surrounding expanses of boreal evergreen forest. Sedges are one of the more common herbaceous species, carnivorous plants such as sundews and pitcher plants have adapted to the low-nutrient conditions by using invertebrates as a nutrient source. Orchids have adapted to these conditions through the use of fungi to extract nutrients. Some shrubs such as Myrica gale have root nodules in which nitrogen fixation occurs, Bogs are recognized as a significant/specific habitat type by a number of governmental and conservation agencies. They can provide habitat for mammals, such as caribou, moose, the United Kingdom in its Biodiversity Action Plan establishes bog habitats as a priority for conservation. Russia has a reserve system in the West Siberian Lowland
9.
Moorland
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Moorland nowadays generally means uncultivated hill land, but includes low-lying wetlands. It is closely related to heath although experts disagree on precisely what distinguishes the types of vegetation, generally, moor refers to highland, high rainfall zones, whereas heath refers to lowland zones which are more likely to be the result of human activity. Most of the worlds moorlands are very diverse ecosystems, in the extensive moorlands of the tropics biodiversity can be extremely high. Moorland also bears a relationship to tundra, appearing as the tundra retreats, the boundary between tundra and moorland constantly shifts with climate change. Heathland and moorland are the most extensive areas of vegetation in the British Isles. The eastern British moorlands are similar to heaths but are differentiated by having a covering of peat, on western moors the peat layer may be several metres thick. There is uncertainty about how many moors were created by human activity, how much the deforestation was caused by climatic changes and how much by human activity is uncertain. A variety of habitat types are found in different world regions of moorland. The wildlife and vegetation forms often lead to high endemism because of the severe soil, for example, in Englands Exmoor is found the rare horse breed the Exmoor Pony, which has adapted to the harsh conditions of that environment. In Europe, the fauna consists of bird species such as red grouse, hen harrier, merlin, golden plover, curlew, skylark, meadow pipit, whinchat, ring ouzel. Other species dominate in moorlands elsewhere, reptiles are few due to the cooler conditions. In Europe, only the common viper is frequent, though in other regions moorlands are commonly home to dozens of reptile species, amphibians such as frogs are well represented in moorlands. When moorland is overgrazed, woody vegetation is often lost, being replaced by coarse, unpalatable grasses and bracken, some hill sheep breeds, such as Scottish Blackface and the Lonk, thrive on the austere conditions of heather moors. Burning of moorland has been practised for a number of reasons and this is recorded in Britain in the fourteenth century. Uncontrolled burning frequently caused problems, and was forbidden by statute in 1607, with the rise of sheep and grouse management in the nineteenth century it again became common practice. Heather is burnt at about 10 or 12 years old when it will regenerate easily, left longer, the woodier stems will burn more aggressively and will hinder regrowth. Burning of moorland vegetation needs to be carefully controlled as the peat itself can catch fire. In addition, uncontrolled burning of heather can promote alternative bracken, as a result, burning is now a controversial practice, Rackham calls it second-best land management
10.
Muskeg
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Muskeg is an acidic soil type common in Arctic and boreal areas, although it is found in other northern climates as well. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bogland, but muskeg is the term in Western Canada and Alaska. The term became common in these areas because it is of Cree origin, large tracts of this soil existing in Siberia may be called muskeg or bogland interchangeably. Muskeg consists of plants in various states of decomposition, ranging from fairly intact sphagnum moss, to sedge peat. Pieces of wood can make up five to 15 percent of the peat soil, Muskeg tends to have a water table near the surface. The sphagnum moss forming it can hold 15 to 30 times its own weight in water, Muskeg patches are ideal habitats for beavers, pitcher plants, agaric mushrooms and a variety of other organisms. Muskeg forms because permafrost, clay or bedrock prevents water drainage, the water from rain and snow collects, forming permanently waterlogged vegetation and stagnant pools. It needs two conditions to develop, abundant rain and cool summers, a dead plant that falls on dry soil is normally attacked by bacteria and fungi and quickly rots. If the same plant lands in water or on saturated soil, less oxygen is available under water, so aerobic bacteria and fungi fail to colonize the submerged debris effectively. In addition, cool temperatures retard bacterial and fungal growth and this causes slow decomposition, and thus the plant debris gradually accumulates to form peat and eventually muskeg. Depending on the topography of the land, muskeg can reach depths greater than 30 metres. Although at first glance resembles a plain covered with short grasses. Small stands of stunted and often dead trees, which vaguely resemble Bonsai trees, grow where land protrudes above the water table and its grassland appearance invites the unwary to walk on it, but even the most solid muskeg is spongy and waterlogged. Traveling through muskeg is a strange and dangerous experience for the unaccustomed, Muskeg can grow atop bodies of water, especially small ponds and streams. Because of the water beneath, the muskeg surface sometimes ripples underfoot, thinner patches allow large animals to fall through, becoming trapped under the muskeg and drowning. Moose are at a disadvantage in muskeg due to their long legs, minimal hoof area. Hunters and hikers may occasionally encounter young moose in muskeg-covered ponds submerged up to their torsos or necks, Muskeg can be a significant impediment to transportation. During the 1870s, muskeg in Northern Ontario was reported to have swallowed a railroad engine whole when a track was laid on muskeg instead of clearing down to bedrock
11.
Carbon sink
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A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical compound for an indefinite period. The process by which carbon sinks remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is known as carbon sequestration, public awareness of the significance of CO2 sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which promotes their use as a form of carbon offset. There are also different strategies used to enhance this process, because growing vegetation takes in carbon dioxide, the Kyoto Protocol allows Annex I countries with large areas of growing forests to issue Removal Units to recognize the sequestration of carbon. The additional units make it easier for them to achieve their target emission levels and it is estimated that forests absorb between 10 and 20 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare each year, through photosynthetic conversion into starch, cellulose, lignin, and wooden biomass. While this has been documented for temperate forests and plantations. Some countries seek to trade rights in carbon emission markets. If overall limits on greenhouse gas emission are put into place, cap, there is as yet no carbon audit regime for all such markets globally, and none is specified in the Kyoto Protocol. In the Clean Development Mechanism, only afforestation and reforestation are eligible to produce certified emission reductions in the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Forest conservation activities or activities avoiding deforestation, which would result in emission reduction through the conservation of existing stocks, are not eligible at this time. Also, agricultural carbon sequestration is not possible yet, soils represent a short to long-term carbon storage medium, and contains more carbon than all terrestrial vegetation and the atmosphere combined. Plant litter and other biomass including charcoal accumulates as organic matter in soils, more recalcitrant organic carbon polymers such as cellulose, hemi-cellulose, lignin, aliphatic compounds, waxes and terpenoids are collectively retained as humus. Organic matter tends to accumulate in litter and soils of colder regions such as the forests of North America. Leaf litter and humus are rapidly oxidized and poorly retained in sub-tropical and tropical climate due to high temperatures. Areas where shifting cultivation or slash and burn agriculture are practiced are generally only fertile for 2–3 years before they are abandoned. These tropical jungles are similar to coral reefs in that they are efficient at conserving and circulating necessary nutrients. Much organic carbon retained in many areas worldwide has been severely depleted due to intensive farming practices. Grasslands contribute to organic matter, stored mainly in their extensive fibrous root mats. Due in part to the conditions of these regions, these soils can accumulate significant quantities of organic matter
12.
Histosol
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In both the FAO soil classification and the USDA soil taxonomy, a histosol is a soil consisting primarily of organic materials. They are defined as having 40 centimetres or more of organic material in the upper 80 centimetres. Organic soil material has a carbon content of 12 to 18 percent, or more. These materials include muck, mucky peat, or peat, aquic conditions or artificial drainage are required. Typically, histosols have very low density and are poorly drained because the organic matter holds water very well. Most are acidic and many are very deficient in major plant nutrients which are washed away in the consistently moist soil, Histosols are known by various other names in other countries, such as peat or muck. In the Australian Soil Classification, histosols are called Organosols, Histosols form whenever organic matter forms at a more rapid rate than it is destroyed. This occurs because of restricted drainage precluding aerobic decomposition, and the remains of plants, thus, histosols are very important ecologically because they, and gelisols, store large quantities of organic carbon. If accumulation continues for a long period, coal forms. Most histosols occur in Canada, Scandinavia, the West Siberian Plain, Sumatra, Borneo, smaller areas are found in other parts of Europe, the Russian Far East, Florida and other areas of permanent swampland. Fossil histosols are known from the earliest extensive land vegetation in the Devonian, Histosols are generally very difficult to cultivate because of the poor drainage and often low chemical fertility. However, histosols formed on very recent glacial lands can often be very productive when drained and they can sometimes be used for fruit if carefully managed, but there is a great risk of the organic matter becoming dry powder and eroding under the influence of drying winds. A tendency towards shrinkage and compaction is also evident with crops, like gelisols, histosols have greatly restricted use for civil engineering purposes because heavy structures tend to subside in the wet soil. In USA soil taxonomy, histosols are subdivided into, Folists - histosols that are not saturated with water for periods of time during the year. Fibrists - histosols that are made up of only slightly decomposed organic materials. Hemists - histosols that are made up of moderately decomposed organic materials. Saprists - histosols that are made up of highly decomposed organic materials. Acid sulfate soil Hydric soil Pedogenesis Pedology Soil classification Soil type Histosols
13.
Wetland
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A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
14.
Fen
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A fen is one of the main types of wetland, the others being grassy marshes, forested swamps, and peaty bogs. Along with bogs, fens are a kind of mire, Fens are minerotrophic peatlands, usually fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. They are characterised by their chemistry, which is pH neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels. They are usually dominated by grasses and sedges, and typically have brown mosses in general including Scorpidium or Drepanocladus, Fens frequently have a high diversity of other plant species including carnivorous plants such as Pinguicula. They may also occur along lakes and rivers where seasonal changes in water level maintain wet soils with few woody plants. The distribution of species of fen plants is often closely connected to water regimes. Fens have a set of plant species, which sometimes provide the best indicators of environmental conditions. For example, fen indicator species in New York State include Carex flava, Cladium mariscoides, Potentilla fruticosa, Pogonia ophioglossoides and Parnassia glauca. Fens are distinguished from bogs, which are acidic, low in minerals, Fens have been damaged in the past by land drainage, and also by peat cutting. Some are now being restored with modern management methods. The principal challenges are to restore natural water regimes, to maintain the quality of water. Carr is the northern European equivalent of the swamp of the southeastern United States. It is a fen overgrown with small trees of species such as willow or alder. In general, fens may change in composition as peat accumulates, a list of species found in a fen can therefore cover a range of species from those remaining from the earlier stage in the successional development to the pioneers of the succeeding stage. Where streams of water run through bog, these are often lined by strips of fen. Temporary flooding by beavers can have effects on fens. Shakespeare used the term fen-sucked to describe the fog in King Lear, media related to Fens at Wikimedia Commons
15.
Pocosin
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Pocosin is a term for a type of palustrine wetland with deep, acidic, sandy, peat soils. Groundwater saturates the soil except during brief seasonal dry spells and during prolonged droughts, Pocosin soils are nutrient-deficient, especially in phosphorus. Pocosins occur in the portions of the Atlantic coastal plain of North America, spanning from southeastern Virginia, through North Carolina. However, the majority of pocosins are found in North Carolina and they occupy poorly drained higher ground between streams and floodplains. There are often perched water tables underlying pocosins, pocosins are sometimes called shrub bogs. Pond pines dominate pocosin forests, but loblolly pine and longleaf pine are also associated with pocosins, additionally, pocosins are home to rare and threatened plant species including Venus flytrap and sweet pitcher plant. Where soil saturation is less frequent and peat depths shallower, pocosins transition into pine flatwoods, a loose definition of pocosin can include all shrub and forest bogs, as well as stands of Atlantic White Cedar and loblolly pine on the Atlantic coastal plain. A stricter definition restricts pocosins to shrubby short pocosins and pond pine-forested tall pocosins, pocosins are formed by the accumulation of organic matter, resembling black muck, that is built up over thousands of years. This accumulation of material causes the area to be highly acidic, the thickness of the organic buildup varies depending on ones location within the pocosin. Near the edges the buildup can be several inches thick but toward the center it can be up to several feet thick, Vegetation on the pocosin varies throughout. At the edges more pond pine is found with an abundance of titi, zenobia, closer to the center thin, stunted trees are typically found however fewer shrubs and vines are present. Pocosins are very important for birds living in cold climates during the winter months, the abundance of various types of available berries draws birds from colder areas. Pond pines exhibit serotiny, such that wildfire can create a pond pine seedbed in the soil, wildfires in pocosins tend to be intense, sometimes burning deep into the peat, resulting in small lakes and ponds. Wildfires occurring about once a decade tend to cause pond pines to dominate over other trees, more frequent fires result in a pyrophytic shrub understory. Annual fires prevent shrub growth and thin the pond pine forest cover, creating a flooded savanna with grass, sedge, the word pocosin comes from an Eastern Algonquian word meaning swamp-on-a-hill, however, a more accurate description of a pocosin would be a “raised bog”. The city of Poquoson, Virginia, located in the plain of Virginia. Detailed Ecological Description of Basin Pocosin Communities Mid-Atlantic Coastal Plain, rapid Assessment Reference Condition Model, Potential Natural Vegetation Group, Pocosin
16.
Peat swamp forest
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Peat swamp forests are tropical moist forests where waterlogged soil prevents dead leaves and wood from fully decomposing. Over time, this creates a layer of acidic peat. Large areas of forests are being logged at high rates. Peat swamp forests are surrounded by lowland rain forests on better-drained soils. Their stability has important implications for climate change, they are among the largest near-surface reserves of terrestrial organic carbon, unfortunately, peat swamp forests, which have ecological importance, are one of the most threatened, yet least studied and most poorly understood biotypes. Since the 1970s, peat swamp forest deforestation and drainage have increased exponentially, in addition, El Niño Southern Oscillation drought and large-scale fires are accelerating peatland devastation. This destruction enhances the decomposition of soil and organic matter, increasing the release to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This phenomenon suggests that tropical peatlands have already become a large carbon-dioxide source, about 62% of the world’s tropical peat lands occur in the Indomalaya region. They are unusual ecosystems, with trees up to 70 m high - vastly different from the lands of the north temperate. The spongy, unstable, waterlogged, anaerobic beds of peat can be up to 20 m deep with low pH and low nutrients, the water is stained dark brown by the tannins that leach from the fallen leaves and peat – hence the name blackwater swamps. During the dry season, the peat remains waterlogged and pools remain among the trees, peat formation is a natural carbon sink, carbon is withdrawn out of the system and converted into peat through biological activity. Peat swamp forests originally represented major ecosystems in Indonesia and ranged between 16. 5–27 million hectares, in their original state, Indonesian peat swamp forests released between 0. 01–0.03 Gt of carbon annually. In recent years, however, these important ecosystems have been reduced through deforestation, drainage and their current status as carbon sequestering systems have thus also been reduced significantly. Over the past decade, under the Mega Rice Project, the government of Indonesia has drained over 1 million hectares of the Borneo peat swamp forests for conversion to agricultural land. Between 1996 and 1998, more than 4,000 kilometers of drainage and irrigation channels were dug, the water channels, and the roads and railways built for legal forestry, opened up the region to illegal forestry. In the MRP area, forest cover dropped from 64. 8% in 1991 to 45. 7% in 2000 and it appears that almost all the marketable trees have now been removed from the areas covered by the MRP. What happened was not what had expected, the channels drained the peat forests rather than irrigating them. Where the forests had often flooded up to 2 meters deep in the rainy season, the Indonesian government has now abandoned the MRP
17.
Ericaceae
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The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acid and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, the many well-known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers. The Ericaceae contain a diverse range of taxa, including herbs, dwarf shrubs, shrubs. Their leaves are alternate or whorled, simple and without stipules. Their flowers are hermaphrodite and show considerable variability, the petals are often fused with shapes ranging from narrowly tubular to funnelform or widely bowl-shaped. The corollas are usually symmetrical, but many flowers of the genus Rhododendron are somewhat bilaterally symmetrical. Adanson used the term Vaccinia to describe a family. The name comes from the type genus Erica, which appears to be derived from the Greek word ereike, the exact meaning is difficult to interpret, but some sources show it as meaning heather. Historically, the Ericaceae included both subfamilies and tribes, within tribe Rhodoreae, five genera were described, Rhododendron L. Therorhodion Small, Ledum L. Tsusiophyllum Max. Menziesia J. E. Smith, that were transferred into Rhododendron. The move significantly increased the morphological and geographical range found within the group, the Ericaceae have a nearly worldwide distribution. They are absent from continental Antarctica, parts of the high Arctic, central Greenland, northern and central Australia, the family is largely composed of plants that can tolerate acidic, infertile conditions. Like other stress-tolerant plants, many Ericaceae have mycorrhizal fungi to assist with extracting nutrients from infertile soils and this trait is not found in the Clethraceae and Cyrillaceae, the two families most closely related to the Ericaceae. Most Ericaceae form a distinctive accumulation of mycorrhizae, in which grow in and around the roots. The Pyroloideae are mixotrophic and gain sugars from the mycorrhizae, as well as nutrients, in many parts of the world, a heath or heathland is an environment characterised by an open dwarf-shrub community found on low-quality acidic soils, generally dominated by plants in the Ericaceae. A common example is Erica tetralix and this plant family is also typical of peat bogs and blanket bogs, examples include Rhododendron groenlandicum and Kalmia polifolia. In eastern North America, members of this family grow in association with an oak canopy. Some evidence suggests eutrophic rainwater can convert ericoid heaths with species such as Erica tetralix to grasslands, nitrogen is particularly suspect in this regard, and may be causing measurable changes to the distribution and abundance of some ericaceous species
18.
Cyperaceae
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The Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses and rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera and these species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical Asia and tropical South America. While sedges may be growing in almost all environments, many are associated with wetlands. Ecological communities dominated by sedges are known as sedgelands, features distinguishing members of the sedge family from grasses or rushes are stems with triangular cross-sections and leaves that are spirally arranged in three ranks. Some well-known sedges include the chestnut and the papyrus sedge. This family also includes cotton-grass, spike-rush, sawgrass, nutsedge or nutgrass, and white star sedge
19.
Fuel
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A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases chemical or nuclear energy as heat or to be used for work. The concept was applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but has since also been applied to other sources of heat energy such as nuclear energy. The heat energy released by reactions of fuels is converted into mechanical energy via a heat engine, other times the heat itself is valued for warmth, cooking, or industrial processes, as well as the illumination that comes with combustion. Fuels are also used in the cells of organisms in a known as cellular respiration. Hydrocarbons and related oxygen-containing molecules are by far the most common source of fuel used by humans, fuels are contrasted with other substances or devices storing potential energy, such as those that directly release electrical energy or mechanical energy. The first known use of fuel was the combustion of wood or sticks by Homo erectus near 2,000,000 years ago, throughout most of human history fuels derived from plants or animal fat were only used by humans. Charcoal, a derivative, has been used since at least 6,000 BCE for melting metals. It was only supplanted by coke, derived from coal, as European forests started to become depleted around the 18th century, charcoal briquettes are now commonly used as a fuel for barbecue cooking. Coal was first used as a fuel around 1000 BCE in China, coal was later used to drive ships and locomotives. By the 19th century, gas extracted from coal was being used for lighting in London. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the use of coal is to generate electricity. Fossil fuels were rapidly adopted during the revolution, because they were more concentrated and flexible than traditional energy sources. They have become a part of our contemporary society, with most countries in the world burning fossil fuels in order to produce power. Currently the trend has been towards renewable fuels, such as biofuels like alcohols, chemical fuels are substances that release energy by reacting with substances around them, most notably by the process of combustion. Most of the energy released in combustion was not stored in the chemical bonds of the fuel. Chemical fuels are divided in two ways, first, by their physical properties, as a solid, liquid or gas. Secondly, on the basis of their occurrence, primary and secondary, solid fuels include wood, charcoal, peat, coal, Hexamine fuel tablets, and pellets made from wood, corn, wheat, rye and other grains. Solid-fuel rocket technology also uses solid fuel, solid fuels have been used by humanity for many years to create fire
20.
Terajoule
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The joule, symbol J, is a derived unit of energy in the International System of Units. It is equal to the transferred to an object when a force of one newton acts on that object in the direction of its motion through a distance of one metre. It is also the energy dissipated as heat when a current of one ampere passes through a resistance of one ohm for one second. It is named after the English physicist James Prescott Joule, one joule can also be defined as, The work required to move an electric charge of one coulomb through an electrical potential difference of one volt, or one coulomb volt. This relationship can be used to define the volt, the work required to produce one watt of power for one second, or one watt second. This relationship can be used to define the watt and this SI unit is named after James Prescott Joule. As with every International System of Units unit named for a person, note that degree Celsius conforms to this rule because the d is lowercase. — Based on The International System of Units, section 5.2. The CGPM has given the unit of energy the name Joule, the use of newton metres for torque and joules for energy is helpful to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications. The distinction may be also in the fact that energy is a scalar – the dot product of a vector force. By contrast, torque is a vector – the cross product of a distance vector, torque and energy are related to one another by the equation E = τ θ, where E is energy, τ is torque, and θ is the angle swept. Since radians are dimensionless, it follows that torque and energy have the same dimensions, one joule in everyday life represents approximately, The energy required to lift a medium-size tomato 1 m vertically from the surface of the Earth. The energy released when that same tomato falls back down to the ground, the energy required to accelerate a 1 kg mass at 1 m·s−2 through a 1 m distance in space. The heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 0.24 °C, the typical energy released as heat by a person at rest every 1/60 s. The kinetic energy of a 50 kg human moving very slowly, the kinetic energy of a 56 g tennis ball moving at 6 m/s. The kinetic energy of an object with mass 1 kg moving at √2 ≈1.4 m/s, the amount of electricity required to light a 1 W LED for 1 s. Since the joule is also a watt-second and the unit for electricity sales to homes is the kW·h. For additional examples, see, Orders of magnitude The zeptojoule is equal to one sextillionth of one joule,160 zeptojoules is equivalent to one electronvolt. The nanojoule is equal to one billionth of one joule, one nanojoule is about 1/160 of the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito
21.
Fossil fuel
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Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum, coal, and natural gas. Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane, Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon, hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquids like petroleum, to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone, associated with oil, non-fossil sources in 2006 included nuclear 8. 5%, hydroelectric 6. 3%, and others amounting to 0. 9%. World energy consumption was growing about 2. 3% per year, the use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns. The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year. Carbon dioxide is a gas that increases radiative forcing and contributes to global warming. A global movement towards the generation of energy is underway to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Over geological time, this matter, mixed with mud. Despite these heat driven transformations, the energy is still photosynthetic in origin. There is a range of organic, or hydrocarbon, compounds in any given fuel mixture. The specific mixture of hydrocarbons gives a fuel its characteristic properties, such as boiling point, melting point, density, viscosity, some fuels like natural gas, for instance, contain only very low boiling, gaseous components. Others such as gasoline or diesel contain much higher boiling components, terrestrial plants, on the other hand, tend to form coal and methane. Many of the coal fields date to the Carboniferous period of Earths history, terrestrial plants also form type III kerogen, a source of natural gas. Fossil fuels are of importance because they can be burned. The use of coal as a fuel predates recorded history, coal was used to run furnaces for the melting of metal ore. Semi-solid hydrocarbons from seeps were also burned in ancient times, commercial exploitation of petroleum, largely as a replacement for oils from animal sources, for use in oil lamps began in the 19th century. Natural gas, once flared-off as an byproduct of petroleum production, is now considered a very valuable resource
22.
Coal
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Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure. Coal is composed primarily of carbon, along with quantities of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen. A fossil fuel, coal forms when plant matter is converted into peat, which in turn is converted into lignite, then sub-bituminous coal, after that bituminous coal. This involves biological and geological processes that take place over time, throughout history, coal has been used as an energy resource, primarily burned for the production of electricity and heat, and is also used for industrial purposes, such as refining metals. Coal is the largest source of energy for the generation of electricity worldwide, the extraction of coal, its use in energy production and its byproducts are all associated with environmental and health effects including climate change. Coal is extracted from the ground by coal mining, since 1983, the worlds top coal producer has been China. In 2015 China produced 3,747 million tonnes of coal –47. 7% of 7,861 million tonnes world coal production, in 2015 other large producers were United States, India, European Union and Australia. The word originally took the col in Old English, from Proto-Germanic *kula. In Old Turkic languages, kül is ash, cinders, öčür is quench, the compound charcoal in Turkic is öčür kül, literally quenched ashes, cinders, coals with elided anlaut ö- and inflection affixes -ülmüş. At various times in the geologic past, the Earth had dense forests in low-lying wetland areas, due to natural processes such as flooding, these forests were buried underneath soil. As more and more soil deposited over them, they were compressed, the temperature also rose as they sank deeper and deeper. As the process continued the plant matter was protected from biodegradation and oxidation and this trapped the carbon in immense peat bogs that were eventually covered and deeply buried by sediments. Under high pressure and high temperature, dead vegetation was slowly converted to coal, as coal contains mainly carbon, the conversion of dead vegetation into coal is called carbonization. The wide, shallow seas of the Carboniferous Period provided ideal conditions for coal formation, the exception is the coal gap in the Permian–Triassic extinction event, where coal is rare. Coal is known from Precambrian strata, which predate land plants — this coal is presumed to have originated from residues of algae, in its dehydrated form, peat is a highly effective absorbent for fuel and oil spills on land and water. It is also used as a conditioner for soil to make it able to retain. Lignite, or brown coal, is the lowest rank of coal, jet, a compact form of lignite, is sometimes polished and has been used as an ornamental stone since the Upper Palaeolithic
23.
Lignite
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Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft brown combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its low heat content. It has a carbon content around 60–70 percent and it is mined all around the world and is used almost exclusively as a fuel for steam-electric power generation, but is also mined for its germanium content in China. The energy content of lignite ranges from 10 to 20 MJ/kg on a moist, the energy content of lignite consumed in the United States averages 15 MJ/kg, on the as-received basis. The energy content of lignite consumed in Victoria, Australia, averages 8.4 MJ/kg, lignite has a high content of volatile matter which makes it easier to convert into gas and liquid petroleum products than higher-ranking coals. Unfortunately, its moisture content and susceptibility to spontaneous combustion can cause problems in transportation. However, removing the moisture increases the cost of the final lignite fuel, because of its low energy density and typically high moisture content, brown coal is inefficient to transport and is not traded extensively on the world market compared with higher coal grades. It is often burned in power stations near the mines, such as in Australias Latrobe Valley, the operation of traditional brown-coal plants, particularly in combination with strip mining, can be politically contentious due to environmental concerns. An environmentally beneficial use of lignite can be found in its use in cultivation and distribution of biological control microbes that suppress plant disease causing microbes, lignite begins as an accumulation of partially decayed plant material, or peat. Burial by other sediments results in increasing temperature, depending on the geothermal gradient and tectonic setting. This causes compaction of the material and loss of some of the water and this process, called coalification, concentrates the carbon content, and thus the heat content, of the material. Deeper burial and the passage of time result in expulsion of moisture and volatile matter, eventually transforming the material into higher rank coals such as bituminous. Lignite deposits are younger than higher-ranked coals, with the majority of them having formed during the Tertiary period. The Latrobe Valley in the state of Victoria, Australia, contains estimated reserves of some 65 billion tonnes of brown coal, the deposit is equivalent to 25 percent of known world reserves. The coal seams are up to 100 metres thick, with coal seams often giving virtually continuous brown coal thickness of up to 230 metres. Seams are covered by little overburden. Lignite can be separated into two types, the first is xyloid lignite or fossil wood and the second form is the compact lignite or perfect lignite. Although xyloid lignite may sometimes have the tenacity and the appearance of ordinary wood and it is reducible to a fine powder by trituration, and if submitted to the action of a weak solution of potash, it yields a considerable quantity of humic acid
24.
Renewable energy
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Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas, electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, based on REN21s 2016 report, renewables contributed 19. 2% to humans global energy consumption and 23. 7% to their generation of electricity in 2014 and 2015, respectively. This energy consumption is divided as 8. 9% coming from biomass,4. 2% as heat energy,3. 9% hydro electricity and 2. 2% is electricity from wind, solar, geothermal. Worldwide investments in renewable technologies amounted to more than US$286 billion in 2015, with countries like China, globally, there are an estimated 7.7 million jobs associated with the renewable energy industries, with solar photovoltaics being the largest renewable employer. As of 2015 worldwide, more than half of all new electricity capacity installed was renewable, Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas, in contrast to other energy sources, which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Rapid deployment of energy and energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security, climate change mitigation. In international public opinion there is strong support for promoting renewable sources such as solar power. At the national level, at least 30 nations around the already have renewable energy contributing more than 20 percent of energy supply. National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade, for example, in Denmark the government decided to switch the total energy supply to 100% renewable energy by 2050. While many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas and developing countries, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity. Renewable energy systems are becoming more efficient and cheaper. Their share of energy consumption is increasing. Growth in consumption of coal and oil could end by 2020 due to increased uptake of renewables, in its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, rapid deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and technological diversification of energy sources, would result in significant energy security and economic benefits. New government spending, regulation and policies helped the industry weather the financial crisis better than many other sectors. As of 2011, small solar PV systems provide electricity to a few million households, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that renewable energy has the ability to lift the poorest nations to new levels of prosperity. At the national level, at least 30 nations around the already have renewable energy contributing more than 20% of energy supply. Some countries have much higher long-term policy targets of up to 100% renewables, outside Europe, a diverse group of 20 or more other countries target renewable energy shares in the 2020–2030 time frame that range from 10% to 50%
25.
United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
26.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
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Membership of the IPCC is open to all members of the WMO and UNEP. The IPCC produces reports that support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The IPCC does not carry out its own research, nor does it do the work of monitoring climate or related phenomena itself. The IPCC bases its assessment on the literature, which includes peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources. Thousands of scientists and other experts contribute to writing and reviewing reports, IPCC reports contain a Summary for Policymakers, which is subject to line-by-line approval by delegates from all participating governments. Typically this involves the governments of more than 120 countries, the IPCC provides an internationally accepted authority on climate change, producing reports which have the agreement of leading climate scientists and the consensus of participating governments. The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared, in equal parts, in this way, it was formed as a hybrid between a scientific body and an intergovernmental political organisation. The aims of the IPCC are to assess scientific information relevant to, Human-induced climate change, The impacts of human-induced climate change, korean economist Hoesung Lee has been the chair of the IPCC since October 8,2015, following the election of the new IPCC Bureau. Before this election, the IPCC was led by his vice-Chair Ismail El Gizouli, the previous chairs were Rajendra K. Pachauri, elected in May 2002, Robert Watson in 1997, and Bert Bolin in 1988. The chair is assisted by an elected bureau including vice-chairs, working group co-chairs, the IPCC Panel is composed of representatives appointed by governments and organizations. Participation of delegates with appropriate expertise is encouraged, plenary sessions of the IPCC and IPCC Working groups are held at the level of government representatives. Non Governmental and Intergovernmental Organizations may be allowed to attend as observers, Sessions of the IPCC Bureau, workshops, expert and lead authors meetings are by invitation only. Attendance at the 2003 meeting included 350 government officials and climate change experts, after the opening ceremonies, closed plenary sessions were held. The meeting report states there were 322 persons in attendance at Sessions with about seven-eighths of participants being from governmental organizations, there are several major groups, IPCC Panel, Meets in plenary session about once a year and controls the organizations structure, procedures, and work program. The Panel is the IPCC corporate entity, Secretariat, Oversees and manages all activities. 30 members include IPCC Vice-Chairs, Co-Chairs and Vice-Chairs of Working Groups, Working Groups, Each has two Co-Chairs, one from the developed and one from developing world, and a technical support unit. Working Group I, Assesses scientific aspects of the climate system, Co-Chairs, Valérie Masson-Delmotte and Panmao Zhai Working Group II, Assesses vulnerability of socio-economic and natural systems to climate change, consequences, and adaptation options. Co-Chairs, Hans-Otto Pörtner and Debra Roberts Working Group III, Assesses options for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, the organisation is required to comply with the Financial Regulations and Rules of the WMO
27.
Joule
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The joule, symbol J, is a derived unit of energy in the International System of Units. It is equal to the transferred to an object when a force of one newton acts on that object in the direction of its motion through a distance of one metre. It is also the energy dissipated as heat when a current of one ampere passes through a resistance of one ohm for one second. It is named after the English physicist James Prescott Joule, one joule can also be defined as, The work required to move an electric charge of one coulomb through an electrical potential difference of one volt, or one coulomb volt. This relationship can be used to define the volt, the work required to produce one watt of power for one second, or one watt second. This relationship can be used to define the watt and this SI unit is named after James Prescott Joule. As with every International System of Units unit named for a person, note that degree Celsius conforms to this rule because the d is lowercase. — Based on The International System of Units, section 5.2. The CGPM has given the unit of energy the name Joule, the use of newton metres for torque and joules for energy is helpful to avoid misunderstandings and miscommunications. The distinction may be also in the fact that energy is a scalar – the dot product of a vector force. By contrast, torque is a vector – the cross product of a distance vector, torque and energy are related to one another by the equation E = τ θ, where E is energy, τ is torque, and θ is the angle swept. Since radians are dimensionless, it follows that torque and energy have the same dimensions, one joule in everyday life represents approximately, The energy required to lift a medium-size tomato 1 m vertically from the surface of the Earth. The energy released when that same tomato falls back down to the ground, the energy required to accelerate a 1 kg mass at 1 m·s−2 through a 1 m distance in space. The heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of water by 0.24 °C, the typical energy released as heat by a person at rest every 1/60 s. The kinetic energy of a 50 kg human moving very slowly, the kinetic energy of a 56 g tennis ball moving at 6 m/s. The kinetic energy of an object with mass 1 kg moving at √2 ≈1.4 m/s, the amount of electricity required to light a 1 W LED for 1 s. Since the joule is also a watt-second and the unit for electricity sales to homes is the kW·h. For additional examples, see, Orders of magnitude The zeptojoule is equal to one sextillionth of one joule,160 zeptojoules is equivalent to one electronvolt. The nanojoule is equal to one billionth of one joule, one nanojoule is about 1/160 of the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito
28.
Emission intensity
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Emission intensities may also be used to compare the environmental impact of different fuels or activities. The related terms emission factor and carbon intensity are used interchangeably, but factors exclude aggregate activities such as GDP. One commonly used figure is carbon intensity per kilowatt-hour, or CIPK, the interrelations of these variables is treated under the so-called Kaya identity. The level of uncertainty of the resulting estimates depends significantly on the source category, the same is true for sulphur dioxide, since sulphur contents of fuels are also generally well known. Both carbon and sulphur are almost completey oxidized during combustion and all carbon, in contrast, the levels of other air pollutants and non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions from combustion depend on the precise technology applied when fuel is combusted. Examples of these are particulates, NOx, a mixture of nitric oxide, NO, note,3.6 MJ = megajoule ==1 kW·h = kilowatt-hour, thus 1 g/MJ =3.6 g/kW·h. The following tables show carbon intensity of GDP in market exchange rates, units are metric tons of carbon dioxide per thousand year 2005 US dollars. Data are taken from the US Energy Information Administration, annual data between 1980 and 2009 are averaged over three decades, 1980-89, 1990–99, and 2000–09. In 2009 CO2 intensity of GDP in the OECD countries reduced by 2. 9%, the USA posted a higher ratio of 0.41 kCO2/$05p while Europe showed the largest drop in CO2 intensity compared to the previous year. CO2 intensity continued to be higher in non-OECD countries. Despite a slight improvement, China continued to post a high CO2 intensity, CO2 intensity in Asia rose by 2% during 2009 since energy consumption continued to develop at a strong pace. Important ratios were observed in countries in CIS and the Middle East. Total CO2 emissions from energy use were 5% below their 1990 level in 2007, over the period 1990–2007, CO2 emissions from energy use have decreased on average by 0. 3%/year although the economic activity increased by 2. 3%/year. After dropping until 1994, the CO2 emissions have increased steadily until 2003 and decreased slowly again since. Total CO2 emissions per capita decreased from 8.7 t in 1990 to 7.8 t in 2007, commodity Exchange Bratislava has calculated carbon intensity for Voluntary Emissions Reduction projects carbon intensity in 2012 to be 0,343 tn/MWh. One of the most important uses of emission factors is for the reporting of greenhouse gas inventories under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. These IPCC Guidelines are the source for default emission factors. Recently IPCC has published the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and these and many more greenhouse gas emission factors can be found on IPCCs Emission Factor Database
29.
Natural gas
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It is formed when layers of decomposing plant and animal matter are exposed to intense heat and pressure under the surface of the Earth over millions of years. The energy that the plants originally obtained from the sun is stored in the form of bonds in the gas. Natural gas is a fuel used as a source of energy for heating, cooking. It is also used as fuel for vehicles and as a feedstock in the manufacture of plastics. Natural gas is found in underground rock formations or associated with other hydrocarbon reservoirs in coal beds. Petroleum is another resource and fossil fuel found in proximity to. Most natural gas was created over time by two mechanisms, biogenic and thermogenic, biogenic gas is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, landfills, and shallow sediments. Deeper in the earth, at temperature and pressure, thermogenic gas is created from buried organic material. In petroleum production gas is burnt as flare gas. The World Bank estimates that over 150 cubic kilometers of gas are flared or vented annually. Before natural gas can be used as a fuel, most, Natural gas is often informally referred to simply as gas, especially when compared to other energy sources such as oil or coal. However, it is not to be confused with gasoline, especially in North America, Natural gas was used by the Chinese in about 500 BCE. They discovered a way to transport gas seeping from the ground in crude pipelines of bamboo to where it was used to salt water to extract the salt. The worlds first industrial extraction of gas started at Fredonia, New York. By 2009,66000 km³ had been used out of the total 850000 km³ of estimated remaining reserves of natural gas. An annual increase in usage of 2–3% could result in currently recoverable reserves lasting significantly less, unwanted natural gas was a disposal problem in the active oil fields. If there was not a market for natural gas near the wellhead it was expensive to pipe to the end user. In the 19th century and early 20th century, unwanted gas was burned off at oil fields
30.
Last glacial period
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The last glacial period, popularly known as the Ice Age, was the most recent glacial period, which occurred from c. 110,000 – c. 11,700 years ago. This most recent glacial period is part of a pattern of glacial and interglacial periods known as the Quaternary glaciation. From this point of view, scientists consider this ice age to be merely the latest glaciation event in a larger ice age. During this last glacial period, there were changes between glacier advance and retreat. The Last Glacial Maximum, the extent of glaciation within the last glacial period, was approximately 22,000 years ago. Approximately 13,000 years ago, the Late Glacial Maximum began, around 11,700 years ago marked the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch, which includes the Holocene glacial retreat. From the point of view of archaeology, it falls in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods. When the glaciation event started, Homo sapiens were confined to Africa and used tools comparable to those used by Neanderthals in western and central Eurasia, near the end of the event, Homo sapiens spread into Eurasia and Australia. The retreat of the glaciers allowed groups of Asians to migrate to the Americas, glacials, on the other hand, refer to colder phases within an ice age that separate interglacials. Thus, the end of the last glacial period is not the end of the last ice age, the end of the last glacial period was about 11,700 years ago, while the end of the last ice age has not yet come. Over the past few years the glacial-interglacial cycle has been paced by periodic variations in the Earths orbit via Milankovitch cycles which are thus the cause of ice ages. The glaciations that occurred during this period covered many areas, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. The geochronological Late Pleistocene comprises the late glacial and the immediately preceding penultimate interglacial preiond, the last glaciation centered on the huge ice sheets of North America and Eurasia. Considerable areas in the Alps, the Himalaya and the Andes were ice-covered, Canada was nearly completely covered by ice, as well as the northern part of the United States, both blanketed by the huge Laurentide ice sheet. Alaska remained mostly ice free due to climate conditions. Local glaciations existed in the Rocky Mountains and the Cordilleran ice sheet and as ice fields, the maximum extent of western Siberian glaciation was reached by approximately 16, 000–15,000 BCE and thus later than in Europe. Northeastern Siberia was not covered by an ice sheet. Instead, large, but restricted, icefield complexes covered mountain ranges within northeast Siberia, according to the sediment composition retrieved from deep-sea cores there must even have been times of seasonally open waters
31.
Phragmites
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Phragmites is a genus of four species of large perennial grasses found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, maintained by Kew Garden in London, – Japan, Korea, Ryukyu Islands, Russian Far East Phragmites karka Trin. About 130 other synonyms have been proposed, and some have been widely used, arundo phragmites L. and Phragmites vulgaris Crép. Recent studies have characterised morphological distinctions between the introduced and native stands of Phragmites australis in North America, americanus – the North American genotype has been described as a distinct subspecies, subsp. Americanus, and Phragmites australis – the Eurasian genotype is sometimes referred to as subsp, altissimus Clayton is an accepted subspecies of P. australis. Phragmites australis var. marsillyanus Kerguélen is a variety of Phragmites australis. In North America, the status of Phragmites australis was a source of confusion and it was commonly considered an exotic species and often invasive species, introduced from Europe. However, there is evidence of the existence of Phragmites as a plant in North America long before European colonization of the continent. It is now known that the North American native forms of P. a. subsp, americanus are markedly less vigorous than European forms. The recent marked expansion of Phragmites in North America may be due to the more vigorous, Phragmites outcompetes native vegetation and lowers the local plant biodiversity. Phragmites forms dense thickets of vegetation that is unsuitable habitat for native fauna, Phragmites displaces native plants species such as wild rice, cattails, and native wetland orchids. Phragmites has a high ground biomass that blocks light to other plants allowing areas to turn into Phragmites monoculture very quickly. Decomposing Phragmites increases the rate of marsh accretion more rapidly than would occur with native marsh vegetation, australis is causing serious problems for many other North American hydrophyte wetland plants, including the native Phragmites australis subsp. Gallic acid released by Phragmites is degraded by ultraviolet light to produce acid, effectively hitting susceptible plants. Phragmites are so difficult to control one of the most effective methods of eradicating the plant is to burn it over 2-3 seasons. The roots grow so deep and strong that one burn is not enough, ongoing research suggests that goats could be effectively used to control the species. Phragmites australis, common reed, commonly forms extensive stands, which may be as much as 1 square kilometre or more in extent, where conditions are suitable it can also spread at 5 metres or more per year by horizontal runners, which put down roots at regular intervals. It can grow in damp ground, in standing water up to 1 metre or so deep, the erect stems grow to 2–6 metres tall, with the tallest plants growing in areas with hot summers and fertile growing conditions
32.
Consolidation (soil)
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Consolidation is a process by which soils decrease in volume. According to Karl von Terzaghi consolidation is any process which involves a decrease in water content of saturated soil without replacement of water by air, in general it is the process in which reduction in volume takes place by expulsion of water under long term static loads. It occurs when stress is applied to a soil causes the soil particles to pack together more tightly. When this occurs in a soil that is saturated with water, water will be squeezed out of the soil, the magnitude of consolidation can be predicted by many different methods. In the Classical Method, developed by Terzaghi, soils are tested with an oedometer test to determine their compression index and this can be used to predict the amount of consolidation. When stress is removed from a soil, the soil will rebound. If the stress is reapplied, the soil will consolidate again along a recompression curve, the soil which had its load removed is considered to be overconsolidated. This is the case for soils which have previously had glaciers on them, the highest stress that it has been subjected to is termed the preconsolidation stress. The over consolidation ratio or OCR is defined as the highest stress experienced divided by the current stress, a soil which is currently experiencing its highest stress is said to be normally consolidated and to have an OCR of one. A soil could be considered underconsolidated immediately after a new load is applied, the process of consolidation is often explained with an idealized system composed of a spring, a container with a hole in its cover, and water. In this system, the spring represents the compressibility or the structure of the soil itself, the container is completely filled with water, and the hole is closed. A load is applied onto the cover, while the hole is still unopened, at this stage, only the water resists the applied load. As soon as the hole is opened, water starts to drain out through the hole, after some time, the drainage of water no longer occurs. Now, the spring alone resists the applied load and this method assumes consolidation occurs in only one-dimension. Laboratory data is used to construct a plot of strain or void ratio versus effective stress where the stress axis is on a logarithmic scale. The plots slope is the index or recompression index. The equation for consolidation settlement of a consolidated soil can then be determined to be. E0 is the void ratio
33.
Hudson Bay Lowlands
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Hudson Bay Lowlands are a vast wetland located between the Canadian Shield and southern shores of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Most of the lies within the province of Ontario, with smaller portions reaching into Manitoba. This is the largest wetland in Canada, and one of the largest in the world, the region can be subdivided into three bands running roughly northwest to southeast, the Coastal Hudson Bay Lowland, Hudson Bay Lowland, and James Bay Lowland. The entire area was covered by ice during the last glaciation, plants from more temperate regions mix with arctic species. A majority of the wetland is peat bog, although saline marshes occur along the coast, the wetlands provide important habitat for migratory birds including shorebirds and waterfowl. Large mammals include polar bear and wolverine, the local Ojibwa and Cree most likely came into contact with the region but did not populate the region due to the harsh, undesirable conditions and poor drainage patterns of the area. When Europeans arrived in the area, The Hudsons Bay Company set up trading posts such as Rankin Inlet, however, these never grew into sizable towns, again because of the poor living conditions and climate. To this day, not all of the lowlands have been properly explored, there are a few small First Nations settlements on the southern shore of Hudson Bay Lowlands at places like Moose Factory, Moosonee, Attawapiskat, and Fort Severn. The region is named after the inland sea, Hudson Bay. The entire area drains into the bay through rivers such as the Churchill, Severn, the region is located in the extreme north of Ontario, extending into both Manitoba to the west and Quebec in the east, and covers around 25 percent of Ontarios total land area. The area was covered in ice during the last ice age, peatlands, both bogs and fens now cover much of the landscape, with other kinds of wetlands along rivers and the coast. The climate of the region depends largely on the surface of the bay. In the winter the bay freezes over again, bringing freezing temperatures, the vegetation is mostly conifer forest and peatland, with typical sub arctic and boreal plants. Hudson Bay in The Canadian Encyclopedia Hudson Bay Lowlands - Ottertooth Arctic Institute paper by Hugo Sjörs, Bogs, Hudson Bay Lowlands show recent effects of global warming. Max Paris Environment Unit, CBC News
34.
Mackenzie River
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The Mackenzie River is the largest and longest river system in Canada, and is exceeded only by the Mississippi River system in North America. The rivers mainstem runs 1,738 kilometres in a direction to the Arctic Ocean. It is the largest river flowing into the Arctic from North America, rising out of the marshy western end of Great Slave Lake, the Mackenzie River flows generally west-northwest for about 300 km, passing the hamlet of Fort Providence. At Fort Simpson it is joined by the Liard River, its largest tributary, then swings towards the Arctic, the Keele River enters from the left about 100 km above Tulita, where the Great Bear River joins the Mackenzie. Just before crossing the Arctic Circle, the river passes Norman Wells, then continues northwest to merge with the Arctic Red and it finally empties into the Beaufort Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean, through the vast Mackenzie Delta. Most of the Mackenzie River is a broad, slow-moving waterway and it is a braided river for much of its length, characterized by numerous sandbars and side channels. The river ranges from 2 to 5 km wide and 8 to 9 m deep in most parts, at 1,805,200 square kilometres, the Mackenzie Rivers watershed or drainage basin is the largest in Canada, encompassing nearly 20% of the country. The river discharges more than 325 cubic kilometres of each year. The Mackenzies outflow holds a major role in the local climate above the Arctic Ocean with large amounts of fresh water mixing with the cold seawater. Many major watersheds of North America border on the drainage of the Mackenzie River, much of the western edge of the Mackenzie basin runs along the Continental Divide. Lowland divides in the north distinguish the Mackenzie basin from those of the Anderson, Horton, Coppermine, eastern watersheds bordering on that of the Mackenzie include those of the Thelon and Churchill Rivers, both of which flow into Hudson Bay. On the south, the Mackenzie watershed borders that of the North Saskatchewan River, part of the Nelson River system, which empties into Hudson Bay after draining much of south-central Canada. Through its many tributaries, the Mackenzie River basin covers portions of five Canadian provinces and territories – British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon, and Northwest Territories. The Slave is the feeder of Great Slave Lake, other inflows include the Taltson, Lockhart and Hay Rivers. Direct tributaries of the Mackenzie from the west such as the Liard, the eastern portion of the Mackenzie basin is dominated by vast reaches of lake-studded boreal forest and includes many of the largest lakes in North America. By both volume and surface area, Great Bear Lake is the biggest in the watershed and third largest on the continent, with an area of 31,153 km2. Great Slave Lake is slightly smaller, with an area of 28,568 km2 and containing 2,088 km3 of water, the third major lake, Athabasca, is less than a third that size with an area of 7,800 km2. Six other lakes in the cover more than 1,000 km2, including the Williston Lake reservoir
35.
Magellanic subpolar forests
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The Magellanic subpolar forests are a terrestrial ecoregion of southernmost South America, covering parts of southern Chile and Argentina, and are part of the Neotropic ecozone. It is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion, and contains the worlds southernmost forests, north of roughly 48° south latitude lies the Valdivian temperate rain forests ecoregion, which shares many affinities with the Magellanic ecoregion in plant and animal life. To the east lie the drier grasslands and shrublands ecoregions of Patagonia. Average annual temperatures vary from 6 °C in the north to 3 °C in the south, snowfalls can occur even in summer. Very strong winds whip the region and these trees to grow in twisted and bent shapes fighting against the wind. Species of Nothofagus, including N. betuloides, N. antarctica, the Magellanic ecoregion does not have the same species richness as the milder Valdivian ecoregion, both on account of its colder climate and its recent glaciation. The Magellanic ecoregion has three main plant communities, the Magellanic moorland, the evergreen Magellanic rainforest, and the deciduous Magellanic forest, the Magellanic moorland occurs on the western edge of the region where the oceanic influence is strongest. High rainfall of 5,000 mm /year is typical of the moorland, as are cool temperatures, strong winds, bad drainage conditions, and rocky ground with generally thin soil. Most of the consists of a mosaic of low-growing plants, including dwarf shrubs and wind-sheared trees, cushion plants, grasses. These plants can form an underlayer of blanket peat and boggy areas, in more sheltered areas, small stands of evergreen forest can be found, which include Nothofagus betuloides, Drimys winteri, Lepidothamnus fonkii, and Pilgerodendron uviferum. Farther from the ocean, in more moderate areas less exposed to the wind and rain. In the better established forest stands, a shrub layer may develop. In exposed, rocky, and poorly drained areas, pockets of deciduous Nothofagus antarctica, the Magellanic deciduous forest is made up mostly of Nothofagus pumilio and Nothofagus antarctica. When one reaches the drier rain shadow east of the mountains, in open spaces some Succulent fruits can be found, Chilean strawberry, and calafate, they used to complement the nourishment of the native peoples. These forests are peerless in their endurance of cold summers and violent subpolar winds, the following species from Tierra del Fuego, Drimys winteri, Nothofagus antarctica, Nothofagus pumilio, and Nothofagus betuloides, have been successfully introduced to the Faroe Islands. As a general rule, Fueguian trees show better signs of acclimation than those from Continental Northern Europe to conditions in the Faroe Islands, the Magellanic subpolar forests are home to the southern pudú, the worlds smallest deer, which stands only 35–45 cm high at the shoulder. Other animal species include the cougar and the southern river otter. Endemic rodents include the Patagonian rat, the mouse, and the viscacha
36.
Patagonia
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Patagonia is a sparsely populated region located at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the section of the Andes mountains as well as the deserts, steppes. Patagonia has two coasts, a western one towards the Pacific Ocean and an eastern one towards the Atlantic Ocean, the Colorado and Barrancas rivers, which run from the Andes to the Atlantic, are commonly considered the northern limit of Argentine Patagonia. The archipelago of Tierra del Fuego is sometimes included as part of Patagonia, most geographers and historians locate the northern limit of Chilean Patagonia at Reloncaví Estuary. The name Patagonia comes from the word used by Magellan in 1520 to describe the native people that his expedition thought to be giants. It is now believed that the people he called the Patagons were Tehuelches, the hypothesis was accepted and published in the New Review of Spanish Philology in the 2011 article. In the hollows of the plains are ponds or lakes of fresh and brackish water, towards the Andes, the shingle gives place to porphyry, granite, and basalt lavas, animal life becomes more abundant and vegetation more luxuriant. It is characteristic of the flora of the western coast, and consist principally of southern beech and conifers. Among the depressions by which the plateau is intersected transversely, the ones are the Gualichu, south of the Río Negro, the Maquinchao and Valcheta, the Senguerr. There, erosion which is caused principally by the sudden melting, best in evidence where in contact with folded Cretaceous rocks which are uplifted by the Cenozoic granite. It generally separates the plateau from the first lofty hills, the ridges generally called the pre-Cordillera, to the west of these, a similar longitudinal depression extends all along the foot of the snowy Andean Cordillera. This latter depression contains the richest and most fertile land of Patagonia, Lake basins along the Cordillera were also excavated by ice-streams, including Lake Argentino and Lake Fagnano, as well as coastal bays such as Bahía Inútil. There have been discrepancies among geologists on the origin of the Patagonian landmass, víctor Ramos has proposed that the Patagonian landmass originated as an allochtonous terrane that separated from Antarctica and docked in South America 250 to 270 Ma in the Permian era. A2014 study by Robert John Pankhurst and coworkers reject any idea of a far-travelled Patagonia claiming it is likely of parautochtonous origin, the Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits have revealed a most interesting vertebrate fauna. The Patagonian Myolania belongs to the Upper Chalk, having been associated with remains of Dinosauria. In the Cenozoic marine formation, a number of cetaceans has been discovered. At a state level, Patagonia lies inside two countries, Chile and Argentina, both countries have organised their Patagonian territories into non-equivalent administrative subdivisions, Provinces and departments in Argentina, and regions, provinces and communes in Chile. Being a unitary state Chiles first level administrative divisions—the regions—enjoy far less autonomy than Argentine provinces, Argentine provinces have elected governors and parliaments, while Chilean regions have government-appointed intendants
37.
Tierra del Fuego
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Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the island, Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, with an area of 48,100 km2. Tierra del Fuego is divided between Chile and Argentina, with the controlling the eastern half of the main island. The southernmost extent of the archipelago is at about latitude 55 S, the earliest known human settlement in Tierra del Fuego dates to around 8,000 B. C. Europeans first explored the islands during Ferdinand Magellans expedition of 1520, Tierra del Fuego, today, petroleum extraction dominates economic activity in the north of Tierra del Fuego, while tourism, manufacturing, and Antarctic logistics are important in the south. The earliest human settlement occurred around 8,000 B. C, the Yaghan were some of the earliest known humans to settle in Tierra del Fuego. Archeological sites with characteristics of their culture have found at locations such as Navarino Island. The name Tierra del Fuego derives from the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, sailing for the Spanish Crown and he believed he was seeing the many fires of the Yaghan, which were visible from the sea, and that the Indians were waiting in the forests to ambush his armada. In 1525 Francisco de Hoces was the first to speculate that Tierra del Fuego was one or more islands rather than part of what was then called Terra Australis, francis Drake in 1578 and a Dutch VOC expedition in 1616 learned more about the geography. The latter expedition named Cape Horn, on his first voyage with the HMS Beagle in 1830, Robert FitzRoy picked up four native Fuegians, including Jemmy Button and brought them to England. The surviving three were taken to London to meet the King and Queen and were, for a time and they returned to Tierra del Fuego in the Beagle with FitzRoy and Charles Darwin, who made extensive notes about his visit to the islands. During the second half of the 19th century, the archipelago began to come under Chilean, both countries sought to claim the whole archipelago based on de jure Spanish colonial titles. Salesian Catholic missions were established in Río Grande and Dawson Island, anglican missions were established by British colonists at Keppel Island in the Falklands in 1855 and in 1870 at Ushuaia on the main island, which continued to operate through the 19th century. Thomas Bridges learned the language and compiled a 30, 000-word Yaghan grammar and it was published in the 20th century and considered an important ethnological work. An 1879 Chilean expedition led by Ramón Serrano Montaner reported large amounts of gold in the streams. This prompted massive immigration to the island between 1883 and 1909. Numerous Argentines, Chileans and Croatians settled in the main island, julius Popper, a Romanian explorer, was one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the region. Granted rights by the Argentine government to exploit any gold deposits he found in Tierra del Fuego, despite the missionaries efforts, many natives died
38.
New Zealand
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New Zealand /njuːˈziːlənd/ is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu—and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, the countrys varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealands capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland, sometime between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that later were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand, in 1840, representatives of Britain and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands. In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire, today, the majority of New Zealands population of 4.7 million is of European descent, the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealands culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, New Zealand is a developed country and ranks highly in international comparisons of national performance, such as health, education, economic freedom and quality of life. Since the 1980s, New Zealand has transformed from an agrarian, Queen Elizabeth II is the countrys head of state and is represented by a governor-general. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes, the Realm of New Zealand also includes Tokelau, the Cook Islands and Niue, and the Ross Dependency, which is New Zealands territorial claim in Antarctica. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Pacific Islands Forum, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and called it Staten Landt, in 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand, Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand. It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the country before the arrival of Europeans. Māori had several names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North, Middle and South, in 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. The New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised and this set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island or Te Waipounamu
39.
Kerguelen Islands
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The Kerguelen Islands, also known as the Desolation Islands, are a group of islands in the southern Indian Ocean constituting one of the two exposed parts of the mostly submerged Kerguelen Plateau. They are among the most isolated places on Earth, located 450 km northwest of the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands and more than 3,300 km from Madagascar, the nearest populated location. The main island, Grande Terre, is 6,675 km2 in area and is surrounded by a further 300 smaller islands and islets, the climate is raw and chilly with frequent high winds throughout the year. The surrounding seas are generally rough and they remain ice-free year-round, there are no indigenous inhabitants, but France maintains a permanent presence of 45 to 100 scientists, engineers and researchers. There are no airports on the islands, so all travel, Kerguelen Islands appear as the Ile de Nachtegal on Philippe Buaches map from 1754 before the island was officially discovered in 1772. It is possible this early name was after Tasmans ship De Zeeuwsche Nachtegaal, on the Buache map, Ile de Nachtegal is located at 43°S, 72°E, about 6 degrees north and 2 degrees east of the accepted location of Grande Terre. The islands were discovered by the French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec on 12 February 1772. The next day Charles de Boisguehenneuc landed and claimed the island for the French crown, yves de Kerguelen organised a second expedition in 1773 and arrived at the baie de lOiseau by December of the same year. On 6 January 1774 he commanded his lieutenant, Henri Pascal de Rochegude, since the end of the whaling and sealing era, most of the islands species have been able to increase their population again. In 1800, Hillsborough spent eight months sealing and whaling around the islands, during this time Captain Robert Rhodes, her master, prepared a chart of the islands. In 1825, the British sealer John Nunn and three members from Favourite, were shipwrecked on Kerguelen until they were rescued in 1827 by Captain Alexander Distant during his hunting campaign. The islands were not completely surveyed until the Ross expedition of 1840, for the 1874 transit of Venus, George Biddell Airy at the Royal Observatory of the UK organised and equipped five expeditions to different parts of the world. Three of these were sent to the Kerguelen Islands, the Reverend Stephen Joseph Perry led the British expeditions to the Kerguelen Islands. He set up his main station at Observatory Bay and two auxiliary stations, one at Thumb Peak led by Sommerville Goodridge, and the second at Supply Bay led by Cyril Corbet. Observatory Bay was also used by the German Antarctic Expedition led by Erich Dagobert von Drygalski in 1902–03, in January 2007, an archaeological excavation of this site was carried out. In 1874–1875, British, German and U. S. expeditions visited Kerguelen to observe the transit of Venus, in 1877 the French started a coal mining operation, however, this was abandoned soon after. The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis called at Kerguelen during December 1940, during their stay the crew performed maintenance and replenished their water supplies. This ships first fatality of the war occurred when a sailor, Bernhard Herrmann and he is buried in what is sometimes referred to as the most southerly German war grave of World War II
40.
Falkland Islands
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The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about 300 miles east of South Americas southern Patagonian coast, the archipelago, with an area of 4,700 square miles, comprises East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. As a British overseas territory, the Falklands have internal self-governance, the islands capital is Stanley on East Falkland. Controversy exists over the Falklands discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans, at various times, the islands have had French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain reasserted its rule in 1833, although Argentina maintains its claim to the islands, in April 1982, Argentine forces temporarily occupied the islands. British administration was restored two months later at the end of the Falklands War, most Falklanders favour the archipelago remaining a UK overseas territory, but its sovereignty status is part of an ongoing dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. The population primarily consists of native-born Falkland Islanders, the majority of British descent, other ethnicities include French, Gibraltarian and Scandinavian. Immigration from the United Kingdom, the South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, under the British Nationality Act 1983, Falkland Islanders are British citizens. The islands lie on the boundary of the oceanic and tundra climate zones. They are home to bird populations, although many no longer breed on the main islands because of competition from introduced species. Major economic activities include fishing, tourism and sheep farming, with an emphasis on high-quality wool exports, oil exploration, licensed by the Falkland Islands Government, remains controversial as a result of maritime disputes with Argentina. The Falkland Islands take their name from the Falkland Sound, a strait separating the two main islands. The name Falkland was applied to the channel by John Strong, Strong named the strait in honour of Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount of Falkland, the Treasurer of the Navy who sponsored their journey. The name Falklands was not applied to the islands until 1765, the term Falklands is a standard abbreviation used to refer to the islands. The Spanish name for the archipelago, Islas Malvinas, derives from the French Îles Malouines — the name given to the islands by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville in 1764, Bougainville, who founded the islands first settlement, named the area after the port of Saint-Malo. The port, located in the Brittany region of western France, was in turn named after St. Malo, in Spanish, the territory was designated as Islas Malvinas. The nomenclature used by the United Nations for statistical processing purposes is Falkland Islands, although Fuegians from Patagonia may have visited the Falkland Islands in prehistoric times, the islands were uninhabited at the time of their discovery by Europeans. Claims of discovery date back to the 16th century, but no consensus exists on whether these early explorers discovered the Falklands or other islands in the South Atlantic, whether or not the settlements were aware of each others existence is debated by historians
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Indonesia
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Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a unitary sovereign state and transcontinental country located mainly in Southeast Asia with some territories in Oceania. Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, it is the worlds largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands. At 1,904,569 square kilometres, Indonesia is the worlds 14th-largest country in terms of area and worlds 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea. It has an population of over 260 million people and is the worlds fourth most populous country. The worlds most populous island, Java, contains more than half of the countrys population, Indonesias republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status and its capital and countrys most populous city is Jakarta, which is also the most populous city in Southeast Asia and the second in Asia. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, other neighbouring countries include Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of wilderness that support the second highest level of biodiversity. The country has abundant natural resources like oil and natural gas, tin, copper, agriculture mainly produces rice, palm oil, tea, coffee, cacao, medicinal plants, spices and rubber. Indonesias major trading partners are Japan, United States, China, the Indonesian archipelago has been an important region for trade since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Indonesia consists of hundreds of native ethnic and linguistic groups. The largest – and politically dominant – ethnic group are the Javanese, a shared identity has developed, defined by a national language, ethnic diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. Indonesias national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, articulates the diversity that shapes the country, Indonesias economy is the worlds 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP, the largest in Southeast Asia, and is considered an emerging market and newly industrialised country. Indonesia has been a member of the United Nations since 1950, Indonesia is a member of the G20 major economies and World Trade Organization. The name Indonesia derives from the Greek name of the Indós, the name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his preference, in the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia, they preferred Malay Archipelago, the Netherlands East Indies, popularly Indië, the East, and Insulinde
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Kalimantan
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Kalimantan is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It comprises 73% of the islands area, the non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesian, the term Kalimantan refers to the island of Borneo. It consists of the two words kal and manthan, the word Kalamanthana is spelled Kalmantan, and then the indigenous people fixed it into Klemantan. The Indonesian territory makes up 73% of the island by area, the non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are of Brunei and East Malaysia, the latter comprising the states of Sabah, Sarawak and the federal territory of Labuan. The region within Indonesia is also known as Indonesian Borneo, kalimantans total area is 544,150 square kilometres. Kalimantan is divided into five provinces, 1)North Kalimantan split off East Kalimantan with resulting population, languages of Kalimantan Kalimantan travel guide from Wikivoyage
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Agriculture
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Agriculture is the cultivation and breeding of animals, plants and fungi for food, fiber, biofuel, medicinal plants and other products used to sustain and enhance human life. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of human civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science, the history of agriculture dates back thousands of years, and its development has been driven and defined by greatly different climates, cultures, and technologies. Industrial agriculture based on large-scale monoculture farming has become the dominant agricultural methodology, genetically modified organisms are an increasing component of agriculture, although they are banned in several countries. Agricultural food production and water management are increasingly becoming global issues that are fostering debate on a number of fronts, the major agricultural products can be broadly grouped into foods, fibers, fuels, and raw materials. Specific foods include cereals, vegetables, fruits, oils, meats, fibers include cotton, wool, hemp, silk and flax. Raw materials include lumber and bamboo, other useful materials are also produced by plants, such as resins, dyes, drugs, perfumes, biofuels and ornamental products such as cut flowers and nursery plants. The word agriculture is a late Middle English adaptation of Latin agricultūra, from ager, field, Agriculture usually refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant, termite and ambrosia beetle. To practice agriculture means to use resources to produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops. This definition includes arable farming or agronomy, and horticulture, all terms for the growing of plants, even then, it is acknowledged that there is a large amount of knowledge transfer and overlap between silviculture and agriculture. In traditional farming, the two are often combined even on small landholdings, leading to the term agroforestry, Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 105,000 years ago. Pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 15,000 years ago, rice was domesticated in China between 13,500 and 8,200 years ago, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. From around 11,500 years ago, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. In the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, sugarcane and some root vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 9,000 years ago. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 7,000 years ago, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 5,600 years ago, and was independently domesticated in Eurasia at an unknown time
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Forestry
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Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human and environment benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands, the science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester, other terms are used a verderer and a silviculturalist being common ones. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the biosphere, and forestry has emerged as a vital applied science, craft, and technology. Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries, the preindustrial age has been dubbed by Werner Sombart and others as the wooden age, as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy, construction and housing. The development of forestry is closely connected with the rise of capitalism, economy as a science and varying notions of land use. Roman Latifundiae, large estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood that was necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with respectively after the decline of the Romans, however already in the 5th century, monks in the then Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and food. This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy, the use and management of many forest resources has a long history in China as well, dating back to the Han Dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry. A similar approach was used in Japan and it was also later written about by the Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi. In Europe, land rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests. The notion of commons refers to the traditional legal term of common land. The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times, however, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting. Systematic management of forests for a yield of timber is said to have begun in the German states in the 14th century, e. g. in Nuremberg. Typically, a forest was divided into sections and mapped. Large firs in the black forest were called „Holländer“, as they were traded to the Dutch ship yards, large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens, timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland. The notion of Nachhaltigkeit, sustainability in forestry, is connected to the work of Hans Carl von Carlowitz
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Ness, Lewis
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It is the most north-westerly community in the European Union. Its most northerly point is the Butt of Lewis, the name Ness derives from the old Norse for headland and many of the other place names in the area also have a Norse origin. Ness is part of the Galson Estate which is owned by Urras Oighreachd Ghabhsainn which is managed by 10 local trustees elected by the community, the hand-over took place on 12 January 2007. Ness is accessible via the A857 road and is about 25 mi by road from Stornoway and you can also reach Ness by walking across the moor from North Tolsta in Back to Skigersta. It is about 10 mi and takes 6 hours at a leisurely pace, scottish Gaelic is the language of the community with 75% being able to speak it. Peat cut from the moor, is used as a fuel for cooking and heating in many homes, the 2001 Census results show a resident population of just under 1,000. In 1831 Ness had a population of just over 3,000, each year 10 men from Ness go out to the island of Sula Sgeir in late August for two weeks to harvest around 2,000 young gannets known locally as Guga. The Guga hunt is a Ness tradition and the bird considered a delicacy, a Ness boat builder called John F. Macleod from Port saved 40 lives following the sinking of the Iolaire by managing to take a line to shore. Ness is known for its Sgoth, a type of clinker built skiff with a lug sail. The boats were used for line fishing until the half of the twentieth century. There are several still in active use owned by community trusts which maintain them, and There is a cultural exchange programme between Ness and Connemara. Lionel School is the school providing for Ness, lionel School is for primary and S1 and S2 and also has a Gaelic medium unit. Lionel School prides itself on its sporting prowess and pupils have won trophies for football, running, badminton, the small School at Cross closed in 2011 due to falling rolls, latterly having only 19 pupils. The buildings have now taken over by the Ness Historical Society. Football is the sport with Ness FC playing their home matches on Fivepenny Machair. Spors Nis is a new Community Sports Centre with all the facilities you would expect including a two lane 10 pin bowling alley. Lionel School also has a pool which is open to the public when not in use by the school
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