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Only 17% of peatlands, vital to curbing climate change, are protected, study finds
(news.mongabay.com)
Unrelated, but those Russian peat samplers they show in the picture SUCK ASS to work with.
You punch them into the peat using your body weight. You turn it exactly 180 degrees, then you pull it up, fighting the whole time with grip and peat suction. If you turn 179 degrees or 181 degrees, you miss the slot for the fin that you created on the way down and now have to pull 10x harder.
It only takes 50 cm bites, and you need 50 cm increments to describe the peat profile. The deepest peat I dug was 780 cm.
If you push it into the underlying mineral soil, it gets stuck, and you need 2 or more people to help pull. We once devised a system of ratchet straps to help pull it up and that barely worked.
Oh and the sampler and it's extensions are heavy as fuck, and the threads jam up. Now carry this god forsaken torture device though kilometers of spongey peat hummocks....