A national peatland database for the Republic of Ireland

This article presents a national peatland database for the Republic of Ireland, covering not only undrained, near-intact bogs with absent land use and management at present but also peatlands that have been reclaimed for grassland, forestry and peat extraction (industrial and domestic) land uses. It presents peat substrate and vegetation data across the entire peat depth for peatland types raised bog (RB), lowland blanket bog (LLBB) and mountain blanket bog (MBB), the major land uses and most prevalent management types (a combination of drainage level and land use/grazing intensity) on these peatland types. It excludes ‘near-intact’ fens, which represent <2% of the total peatland area. Several key edaphic and vegetation properties, peatland classification information, physical features such as topography, elevation, and land use and management information are included in the database which consists of three major components: a ‘Peatland Dataset’ consisting of detailed site, non-composite soil profile and vegetation data, a ‘CHNSO Dataset’, containing results from elemental analysis of composite samples of the Peatland Dataset samples, and a collection of eight water table measurement records over the period November 2017 to January 2020. This new database fills a gap by integrating peat properties from the entire peat profile with a representative sampling design. It offers a valuable resource for peatland monitoring programs as well as planning and implementing sustainable management across Irish peatlands through restoration, rewetting and paludiculture ('wet agriculture') activities.