A video simulating the growth of a raised bog

Abstract

The late Hugh Ingram (HAPI) contributed many things to our knowledge of peatlands. The two best known are probably the acrotelm/catotelm terminology (Ingram 1978), and the application of Childs & Youngs (1961) hemi-elliptical groundwater mound to the cross-section of raised bogs (Ingram 1982). As a tribute to HAPI, I combine these concepts with three others to create a video showing the development of a notional raised bog during 10,000 years. After that, I consider some of the limitations of this simplistic model and why, nevertheless, it is still useful.