IUCN Peatlands, UK

The IUCN UK Peatland Programme exists to promote peatland restoration in the UK and advocates the multiple benefits of peatlands through partnerships, strong science, sound policy and effective practice.

The programme commissioned Acoustic Fingerprints to visualise sounds collected at two peatland sites in the UK, to showcase the biodiversity that exists within UK peatland ecosystems and the benefit of restoring them.

The sounds for the first two pieces below were recorded in April and May 2024 at Honeygar in the Somerset Levels, where Somerset Wildlife Trust are restoring degrading peatlands as part of a rewilding project. Wilder Sensing are leading on bioacoustics monitoring across the site to assess changes in biodiversity. The first image shows a recording from a non-intervention area surrounded by ditches and a mixed species hedgerow, and the second image is from an area of reedbed.

Both soundscapes show lots of colour, representing the intense sounds of the dawn chorus between 05:30 and 08:00. We also see a lot of colour and activity throughout the day. At night we then see a silence falling over the site, with very few active species, apart from crickets (in red) calling just after dusk and before dawn.

The third image in the sequence was taken from Goss Moor in Cornwall, where researchers from the University of Plymouth are undertaking research to understand the carbon cycle in wet woodlands. As the recording was made in July 2024, we see no dawn and dusk chorus as many birds have finished nesting and start their summer moult. The intense activity across the frequency spectrum in the morning, afternoon and evening are human sounds made by the researchers. The hope is to collect additional sounds in the spring.