Talk:Moorland

Moor fires
Hello - I feel the section on moorland conservation/burning doesn't reflect recent science, rather rural tradition. Knowing some reseacrh, certainly in the north of England, ALL moorland burning is anthropogenic (accidental or deliberate) as we just don't have the climate to spontaneously ignite moor fires. It is to aid heather variety for grouse production for shooting, which has increased massively ver the past 20 years to the point of the burning endangering the ecology when the burn becomes too deep (as the case on Ilkely Moor recently, which may take 100s or 1000s of years to recover).

There is also recent contention about whether it is a wholely managed anthropogenic landscape - I have a good cutting edge journal citation to quote for this.

Any thoughts? should I add this all at some point, anything else to consider? Coppelr 23:15, 7 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I've been reading Stephen J. Pyne's book Vestal Fire, and have found interesting his detailed descriptions of how anthropogenic fire since Mesolithic and Neolithic times have greatly transformed the landscapes of much of Europe. There's a long section on the moors of Britain which I found particularly interesting and detailed.  I'm inclined to add some info about it here.  Perhaps your present-day info on burning moors would mesh well with the prehistoric and early history info I've got. Pfly 20:30, 8 March 2007 (UTC)


 * sounds fair enough, I may not get the time for a while but will welcome anything you put in here and let you know of any additions I'll make before making any changes, so as it's balanced. one other thing, the same subject appears to be covered under the wikipedia page for Peat, so it may make sense to combine it under one or the other and cross-ref Coppelr 23:15, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Moorlands in North America
The article makes mention of these, but doesn't give any examples. Could anyone provide some, as I've never heard of this? Cheers. Mordac 11:10, 28 March 2007 (GMT)
 * I'd love to hear any references this section has as well. Ocicat (talk) 01:12, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

The reason I came to this article was to try and find information on this exact thing! I would love to see an explanation of where the "moors of North America" can be found. -MJ 18 June 2011

Characteristics
It would be nice if this article had a clear description of what a moor rather than it is similar to a heath, but boggier. This is not as useful to someone, like myself, coming in without knowledge of either. PerlKnitter (talk) 13:40, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Moorlands Outside UK
The article is heavily UK-centric, even while noting that moorlands are extensive worldwide. Maybe someone knowledgeable can see if we can add examples of high-latitude moorlands: Falkland Islands? Argentina? Chile? New Zealand? Maybe parts of Antarctica? Canada? Alaska (maybe especially in the archipelago)? Iceland? Parts of Greenland? Also, how about better discussion of high-altitude, alpine moorlands? Taquito1 (talk) 02:00, 18 December 2007 (UTC)


 * I've updated the article, with more referencing and distinguishing between heath-land and moor-land. But I agree with Taquito1 - the article would be enhanced by more information on moorland outside of the UK. Bob (talk) 16:53, 10 May 2008 (UTC)


 * A couple of corrections and questions...


 * WRT to "high-latitude" moorlands elsewhere... The Falkland Islands are at 51°42′S 57°51′W -- and London is at 51°30′28″N 00°07′41″W.  Wellington, New Zealand is at 41°17′20″S 174°46′38″E.


 * Most Canadians live south of London. Most of Canada is north of London.  But the environments are forests, prairie, tundra, marsh.  I am not familiar with any areas that correspond to the description of a moorland here.


 * WRT Antarctica -- is there is any plant life in Antarctica? Geo Swan (talk) 02:28, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Unsourced moorland text
I have moved the following unsourced and disputed text to the talk page from the article:

"The small and unrepresentative Anthropogenic moorland of Europe would slowly revert to other types of vegetation such as woodland were it not for scrub and saplings being periodically removed, usually by controlled burning. This is not true for the vast majority of the world's moorlands." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Hadrianheugh (talk • contribs) 00:05, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Article gone dead?
I notice the comments above are now several months old - and little editing had been done to deal with the various issues raised. I agree that Moorland needs to be distinguished from Heathland more clearly, but also distinguished from tundra and upland pasture. I also agree that it is UK biased but to quote one authority 'Scotland is the only accessible country that is more than half moorland, and visitors come from all over the world to see it' (Oliver Rackham).

I will do some work on this page but welcome any further comments on all the various headings on the talk page. Bob (talk) 13:34, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

'Arid' Conditions on Exmoor?
"For example, in England's Exmoor is found the rare species of Exmoor Pony, which has adapted to the harsh, arid conditions of that environment."

I think somebody got their words muddled up there... Gunstar hero (talk) 11:51, 17 May 2009 (UTC)

75% of the world's heather moorland is in Britain: ???
Either you mean with 'moorland' a landscape with very very peculiar vegetation in England or you are completely crazy. Other languages have always had correspondent terms and undoubtly they don't refer to english moorland. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.3.240.189 (talk) 19:59, 3 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't know if the statistic is correct or not but the heather moorland it refers to will probably be largely in Scotland, not England. Bob (talk) 08:04, 4 October 2009 (UTC)

"Seventy-five percent of the world's heather moorland is in the United Kingdom, most of it in Scotland." Official Journal of the National Geographic Society. May 2017. Volume 231, Number 5, page 94 Sendtoanthony (talk) 20:20, 13 August 2017 (UTC)

Whence 75% http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/05/scotland-moors-highlands-conservation-land-management/ Sendtoanthony (talk) 20:29, 13 August 2017 (UTC)

Globalize
As alluded to several times above, this article is largely concerned with moorland in the United Kingdom, while the lead suggests that moorland habitats occur in many other areas of the world. I don't have the knowledge personally to improve things much, but I thought it worth flagging, hence the globalize template. Dave.Dunford (talk) 17:20, 12 September 2012 (UTC)

According to the heath article, heath isn't natural
So it would seem that moor, on its own, might be the most extensive natural vegetation pattern in the British Isles, if heath isn't natural. Ananiujitha (talk) 18:51, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Moorland burning "forbidden by statute"
It would be good to get a citation for this statute. It's not on legislation.gov.uk, but this is not evidence that there was no such statute since that site is missing a lot of old law. Having said that, it does seem to be legal in Northern Ireland at least, since the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development recommends it. Hairy Dude (talk) 12:17, 9 November 2015 (UTC)

Globalization Update
Hi everyone, I would like you all to know that I've done what I could to try and make the article less UK centric by adding more examples to different moorland landscapes around the world in Africa, South America and other parts of Europe. I have also removed Australia, Asia and North America from the lead because there is no evidence in this article to support this information for moorlands in those parts of the world, including references and examples, and in order to maintain consistency with the rest of the information and examples in this article. Unless references and examples can be added for moorlands in Australia, Asia and North America, giving it mention in the lead is meaningless and more work needs to be done with the other sections apart from the leading paragraphs and examples to ensure proper globalization as they are still a bit UK/Europe biased. I'll see if I can do more to improve this article providing I'm free but It'll be much easier if other Wikipedia users whether registered or not (and who are experts in geography) also help out with this process as I'm no expert with this matter. Thank you. Broman178 (talk) 16:42, 21 January 2018 (UTC)

Relation to tundra
The article says:
 * Moorland also bears a relationship to tundra (where the subsoil is permafrost or permanently frozen soil)

But tundra can exist in areas without permafrost, indeed given that permafrost has an upper active layer not much different from seasonally frozen ground outside permafrost areas the impact of permafrost on plant communities is highly dubious. The source used in the article is an apparently non-specialized book with no page indicated to verify the claim. Sietecolores (talk) 14:57, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
 * Rackham, Oliver (1986). The History of the Countryside. Dent. ISBN 978-1-84212-440-6.