The Rise of the Historical Bogs

Bogs go by many names: mires, mosses, quagmires, muskegs, fens. That lingual variety displays their diversified affect on the collective creativeness and on the planet. Associated with thriller and intrigue and other people dwelling on the sting, bogs are usually discovered on nearly each continent of Earth, throughout a variety of climates, from the Arctic to the tropics.

But there was a time when bogs have been much less plentiful. Now scientists have discovered that the rise of those spongy wetlands—primarily composed of sphagnum moss and amassed natural plant matter referred to as peat—might have been impressed by the blowing of robust winds. Known because the Southern Westerlies, these winds blow from west to east throughout the Southern Hemisphere, via southern Chile and Patagonia, New Zealand, Tasmania and the Falkland Islands. And they’re shifting once more now, which might inform us one thing about the place Earth’s local weather is headed. The scientists printed their findings in Nature Geoscience.

“We found a clear pattern,” mentioned Zoe Thomas, lead creator from the University of Southampton, in a statement. “Major peat growth occurred at the same time the winds shifted north or south.” Those shifts in Southern Westerlies, which affect climate patterns and ocean currents, additionally coincided with altering atmospheric ranges of carbon dioxide, suggesting that bogs might function pure local weather time stamps.

Read extra: “The Trouble with the Swamp”

The group of scientists radiocarbon dated the underside layers of peat in bogs discovered within the Falkland Islands, off Argentina, and in contrast these knowledge with the ages of peat taken from Patagonia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and sub-Antarctic islands. What they discovered was that bogs started to kind at totally different occasions in numerous latitudes.

About 21,000 years in the past, after the final glacial most, when ice sheets have been at their biggest extent, peatlands started to rise throughout the Southern mid-latitudes. Then, throughout a 2,000-year-old chilly snap referred to as the Antarctic Cold Reversal, between 14,700 and 13,000 years in the past, peatlands abruptly began to kind additional north. When that chilly snap was over, they moved south once more. These adjustments in local weather and in peat development coincided with adjustments within the Southern Westerlies.

Read extra: “We Need to Talk About Peat”

The winds are shifting once more, however this time they’re headed towards the South Pole. If this sample continues, it might compromise the ocean’s capability to behave as a carbon sink. The shift has already performed an element in more and more frequent droughts and wildfires throughout the southern hemisphere.

As these winds wander, bogs supply a quiet report of the place our local weather could also be going subsequent.

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Lead picture: dvlcom – www.dvlcom.co.uk / Shutterstock

• Kristen French

  Posted on November 19, 2025

  Kristen French is an affiliate editor at Nautilus. She has labored in science journalism since 2013, reporting and writing options and information for publications comparable to Wired, Backchannel, The Verge, and New York Magazine. She has a masters diploma in science journalism from Columbia University.