String bog
Bog consisting of ridges and islands
A string bog or string mire is a bog consisting of slightly elevated ridges and islands, with woody plants, alternating with flat, wet sedge mat areas. String bogs occur on slightly sloping surfaces, with the ridges at right angles to the direction of water flow. They are an example of patterned vegetation.
String bogs are also known as aapa moors or aapa mires (from Finnish aapasuo) or Strangmoor (from the German).
A string bog has a pattern of narrow (2-3 meters wide), low (less than 1 meter high) ridges oriented at right angles to the direction of drainage with wet depressions or pools occurring between the ridges. The water and peat are very low in nutrients because the water has been derived from other ombrotrophic wetlands, which receive all of their water and nutrients from precipitation rather than from streams or springs. The peat thickness is greater than 1 meter.
String bogs are features associated with periglacial climates, where the temperature results in long periods of subzero temperatures. The active layer exists as a frozen ground for long periods and melts in the spring thaw. Slow melting produces characteristic mass movement processes and features associated with specific periglacial environments.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “String bog”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Kepler Mire - Dead Marshes.JPG by Motorau, Public domain
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