|
|
 |
What is a bog? Northern bogs, like the ones in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, are wet, acidic habitats composed mainly of spongy sphagnum moss floating on a thick bed of saturated peat, which can sometimes result in a bouncing effect.
<-- Sphagnum moss is the basic plant in a bog (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
|
 |
Peat develops from the remains of dead plants that collect in the bottom of a waterlogged area, such as a glacial pothole or pond.
<-- Our bog may have begun as a glacial formation (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
|
 |
The cold acidic water prevents the decomposition of plant material and instead of rotting away, it collects over thousands of years at the bottom of the pond, gradually filling it up at a rate of about 1 millimeter per year.
<-- A typical bog in a northern forest (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
|
 |
Organic materials decompose very slowly in bogs due to the cold, acidic, anaerobic (low oxygen) environment. In Europe, where they mine peat for fuel, well-preserved bodies that date back hundreds of years have been found in bogs.
<-- Deeper water at the edge of an Upper Peninsula bog (click thumbnail image to view photograph.)
|
 |
|
|
The "Virtual Bog Walk" is made possible by a Lake Superior Coastal Wetland Conservation Education Grant from the Michigan Coastal Management Program, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Photographs ©Scot Stewart and ©MooseWood Nature Center
MooseWood Nature Center, P.O. Box 773, Marquette, MI 49855
info@moosewood.org (906) 228-6250
|
|
|
