Peat survey in England, Scotland and Wales carried out during 2014 [LTLS]

Triplicate adjacent cores were extracted in 2013 using both a box corer (to recover the surface vegetation and uppermost 1 m of peat) and a Russian-type corer (for peat deeper than 1 m).

All cores extended down to the underlying mineral substrate, ranging in length from 95 cm (Glensaugh) to 417 cm (Forsinard).

The cores were carefully extruded, sliced at 10 cm intervals, air-dried for one week, manually sieved to 2 mm to remove large particles and roots, oven-dried at 60°C to remove residual moisture and ball-milled to a fine, homogenous powder.

Bulk densities of all samples were calculated prior to milling by dividing the dry matter mass by the original volume of wet material.

Phosphorus content was measured colorimetrically using a Seal Analytical AQ2 discrete analyser after digestion in H2SO4/H2O2.

After drying at 105°C, carbon and nitrogen were determined on an Elementar Vario-EL analyser using an ISO17025 accredited method.

Loss-on-ignition (LOI) was determined by combustion in a muffle furnace at 550°C for two hours.

This dataset is included in the following collections

The Long Term Large Scale Project [LTLS]