peat soil (c)

Photo: Chris Gilbert

# Definition of landscape category

D6 Upland mosaics - Areas of a mix of fragmented vegetation forming mosaics defining the transition between upland heath (D1) and other moor and heath categories. As with all D classes the D6 set are common plagioclimax communities in the PDNP.

Three sub-categories are identified: D6a Upland mosaics: Upland heath/grass moor mosaic, D6b Upland heath/bracken (on peat soils?) and D6c Upland heath/grass moor mosaic on blanket bog/peat soil. The boundary with heath will be drawn where heath species comprise more than 80% of the cover and with the other categories where they in turn constitute more than 80% of the cover.

# Aerial Definition

Google photo sphere Curbur Edge (opens new window) D6a/c Looking East on Moorlands howing areas of heather of varying clump and within patch plot sizes intersected with upland acid grassland. D6b Looking West on the slope below the cliff edge Bracken died back to orange/bwon intersected with Heather.

# In the Peak District

Moorland (D) covers approximately 30% of the PDNP, predominantly in the Dark Peak and parts of the South West Peak. As 75% of the world’s remaining heather moorland can be found in the UK. The blanket peat in the Peak District has the potential to contribute to the mitigation of climate change by storing large amounts of carbon and watershed management in the storage and filtration of water if restored and then managed as active blanket bog, a highly valued habitat, in perpetuity.

These fragmented/patchy mosaic habitats are important for many species and are more diverse in topography, hydrology and species composition than the single vegetation classes. They can be viewed as a successional vegetation in flux where management, or inaction, is either causing vegetation change or actively maintaining mosaics of the D class upland communities. In much the same way as D2b and D2d the distinction between these classes is a function of peat depth, management and hydrology. D6a/D6b being the dryer iteration and D6c the wetter. D6c is analogous with modified blanket bog and represents a transition phase between the other wet acid/deep peat vegetation types.

# Useful links

D1 Upland Heath
D2 Upland Acid Grassland

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