Simon Caporn, Emeritus Professor of Ecology and Environment, Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University has been teaching and researching plants, soils and their environments for 30 years.

Simon offers the following description of his talk:

Dark, peaty soils cover an increasing part of Britain as you head to the higher rainfall areas in the north and west. In many poorly drained upland and lowland landscapes, a peat layer formed over thousands of years and is several metres deep, rich in organic matter – and therefore rich in carbon. Globally, peatlands are the largest land-based carbon reservoir, storing more carbon than the world’s forests.

The tiny Sphagnum bog moss is the keystone species of most of these peatlands. In this talk I will explain what is Sphagnum moss and why is it key to the ecology of our peatbogs in terms of biodiversity, carbon balance and global warming? I will address the current increasing interest in peatlands, both locally in Cheshire and globally, consider the damage caused by humans and ask what we can do to repair them and why should we bother?

Simon is actively involved in community work at both Lindow Moss and Danes Moss. He will refer to them as examples during his talk.