In nature, there is lowland, transitional and high peat. The name was not given to them by chance: it depends on the location of the raw materials in the relief. The first type is typical for lowlands (floodplain and valley areas), the latter for elevations (slopes, watersheds, etc.). The transitional variant is found in special intermediate relief forms, such as terraces.
Classification
When developing the classification of this natural resource, its origin from a certain group of plants was taken into account. Each type (lowland, transitional and high peat) is divided into subtypes: forest, marsh and forest-marsh. The latter, in turn, are divided into species depending on the prevailing residues of organic matter (moss, grass and wood).
In the mechanisms of the formation of the peat layer, an important role is played by plant groups, which in the process of evolution form a variety of combinations called phytocenoses. Their formation is influenced by many factors, including soil moisture and topography. What is the difference between peat highland and lowland? There is a difference in the way of mineral nutrition.
Lowland peat
In plant communities of this type, the richest in minerals nutrition is carried out through the soil or river. Water has a salt concentration in excess of 0.2 g / l, in some cases reaching 1 g / l. The medium has an average pH (neutral, slightly acidic, sometimes slightly alkaline).
Lowland phytocenoses consist exclusively of flora, demanding on the mineral composition of the soil. In these areas, trees (spruce, birch), shrubs (willow), grasses (sedges, horsetails) and mosses (hypnosis) grow, which require a large amount of nutrients.
Transition peat
In places of development of phyto-groups of a transitional type, the water balance changes: the importance of rains and meltwater increases, while the role of groundwater decreases. Plants get less minerals from the ground. Their concentration in the soil ranges from 70 to 180 mg / l. The total ash content of the substrate is in the range from 4 to 5%, and the reaction of the medium becomes slightly acidic.
In the transitional forms there are representatives of the lowland and highland flora. The former have the lowest requirements for the amount of minerals in the substrate. Pines, heathers, sedges and sphagnum mosses grow. Of the latter, part prefers bumps, the rest - indentations between them.
Horse peat
The flora of this species includes only the representatives of the plant world that are the most resistant to poor mineral nutrition. The ash content of the substrate here is less than 4%. Mineralization is from 40 to 70 mg / l. Horse peat is acidic; the pH value for it is from 3.5 to 4.5.
One of the most significant representatives of the plant world of horse groups is larch, pine, heather bushes, sheikhtseriya, swamp sedge and some sphagnum mosses.
