Britain's heaths and moors hold the key to reducing carbon emissions

The heather moorlands of Britain are considered by scientists to be a vital weapon in the struggle against climate change, removing carbon from the air as they grow and storing it in their wet, peaty terrain.

But scientists at York University's Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) warned yesterday that the moorlands had become a "timebomb" in the fight against global warming as the combination of a warming climate and bad land management are drying them out, releasing carbon on an industrial scale.

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The SEI's warnings come a year after it began investigating the process at a site near Penrith, in the Cumbrian Pennines. Since the field of research is relatively new, moorlands carbon release remains one of the biggest uncertainties about climate change, according to the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to which the SEI has contributed.

Britain's National Soil Resources Institute has estimated that up to 13 million tonnes of carbon are being released from soil across the United Kingdom every year - equal to almost a tenth of the current total emissions from the nation's industry. Its research has demonstrated the need to improve the management of upland peat bogs, which could reduce greenhouse gas pollution by up to 400,000 tonnes per year, the equivalent of removing 2 per cent of cars from England's roads.

Conversely, poor management of the moors exposes the UK to a vast amount of carbon stored up since the last ice age - more, in fact, than all the carbon stored in the forests of Britain and France combined.

The SEI estimates that all of the peatlands in England and Wales would absorb around 41,000 tonnes of carbon a year if kept in a pristine condition, but could emit up to 381,000 tonnes of carbon annually if damaged by practices such as excessive burning, drainage and overgrazing.

Dr Andreas Heinemeyer, a research associate at the SEI said: "The heather moorlands are a potential timebomb as far as carbon emissions are concerned. Global warming appears to be speeding up the release of carbon from the soil into the atmosphere. The amount of carbon in the peat soil means that this could have a catastrophic effect on global warming. It could lead to a vicious circle with global warming causing more carbon emissions, which in turn cause increasing climate change."

The warning follows a study by Dutch researcher Wiebe Borren, of the University of Utrecht, who investigated the carbon exchange between West-Siberian peat moorlands and the atmosphere. He found that as the peat slowly broke down, carbon was re-released in the form of methane - a greenhouse gas, like C02. Until his study, it was not clear how peat moorland areas influenced the greenhouse effect.

National parks are already looking as a matter of urgency at how they might preserve peat bogs on the moorlands as carbon sinks. But Ruth Chambers, the acting chief executive of the Council for National Parks, called on the nation's highest carbon emitters to help to contribute to conserve the moorland. Miss Chambers said: "There is definitely scope to look at funding from... businesses, government departments and public authorities... who contribute to carbon emissions. They need to reduce these carbon emissions, but they should be helping to contribute to large-scale conservation projects for areas such as the moorlands in national parks."

Research in the field

Moorland near Penrith, Cumbria

York University scientists, whose work has been used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have been studying this site for a year. Carbon exchange processes are better understood here than any other in the world. Work began here five years ago.

Cairngorms, Scotland

A site at the top of the mountain range is being studied by Britain's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). Problems started when moorland was drained in preparation for afforestation, creating loss of carbon. Studies are also being undertaken at Loch More in Caithness.

Plynlimon, mid-Wales

The five-mountain massif within the Cambrian range in mid-Wales is also being examined by CEH scientists, who are trying to understand more about the warming of the soil and what effect that might have on the return of carbon to the atmosphere.

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