On a cold winter afternoon, naturalist and educator Mary Colwell guided visitors on a chilly tour of the Volo Bog Natural Area in northern Illinois.
Crouching down from a boardwalk that runs through the wetland, Colwell pointed to one of the stars of the tour: sphagnum moss. With her encouragement, the group touched the little branch-like leaves of the pale green moss growing at the base of a nearby tree.
鈥淭hen in warmer weather, this is so soft,鈥� Colwell said. 鈥淚t's unreal.鈥�
Bog ecosystems are some of the most efficient carbon-storage ecosystems in the world. They cover just 3% of the earth鈥檚 surface, yet hold up to 30% of global carbon. The bog鈥檚 keystone species, sphagnum moss, plays a key role in its storage capacity. Sphagnum acts like a sponge 鈥� it holds up to 20 times its weight in water.
鈥淪phagnum moss itself is incredible,鈥� Colwell noted. 鈥淚t's very slow growing.鈥�
It grows so slowly, in fact, that it can take thousands and thousands of years for a peat bog to develop. Volo Bog started to form from a glacial lake more than 6,000 years ago. It鈥檚 still encroaching on the center of the lake, called the 鈥渆ye鈥� of Volo Bog.
But while bog ecosystems provide habitat, filter water and store carbon 鈥� they have been disappearing for decades. In Illinois alone, more than 90% of wetlands have been lost. There are about 110 million acres in the United States, with more than half in Alaska 鈥� but nearly 70% have been drained and developed over the past 100 years.
Unlocking sphagnum moss鈥檚 secrets聽
Scientists think sphagnum moss may hold important lessons about carbon dioxide sequestration, but there鈥檚 much they don鈥檛 know.
Sona Pandey is the principal researcher at the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis and is part of a team researching sequestration and bogs.
鈥淭he first time I saw a peat moss under the microscope I just literally fell in love with it,鈥� Pandey said. 鈥淭hat's the only way to describe it. It鈥檚 beautiful to look at.鈥�
Pandey鈥檚 research team is growing moss in a lab, studying its DNA, and trying to figure out how it is threatened by climate change 鈥� and how it could be a solution.
Moss excels at storing carbon. It thrives in waterlogged, acidic conditions. It doesn鈥檛 decompose, acting almost like a giant mat of living carbon.
But when it鈥檚 threatened, that carbon has to go somewhere. The main threat to bogs 鈥� draining for development and agriculture 鈥� exposes these waterlogged species to air, which kickstarts the decomposition process from microbes.
鈥淚t is a possibility that all the carbon which is stored in peat bogs at the moment will be released to the atmosphere,鈥� Pandey said, noting how it will become a greenhouse gas.
She said if we understand these mosses on a microscopic level, scientists and conservationists can better protect and restore them on a larger scale. Her research could lead to making informed decisions about which species would be more successful to reintroduce as part of potential restoration projects.
Protecting what鈥檚 left聽
Historically, bogs have been undervalued, often drained to make land more usable.
Trisha Atwood, an associate professor and ecosystem ecologist at Utah State University, said people are slowly beginning to see them in a new light.
鈥淭here has been substantial changes in people's perception of these wetlands just because they don't typically hit people's Top 10 Most Beautiful Places,鈥� Atwood said. 鈥淕overnments are starting to realize that they have these other benefits.鈥�
While forests and forest soil often get attention for their carbon sequestration, Atwood said wetlands are even more important, storing 30 to 50 times faster and at a higher rate than other systems.
鈥淭hey're like no other ecosystem on Earth,鈥� she said.
Even as some aspects of wetlands are seen as more valuable, a 2023 Supreme Court decision rolled back most existing protections for these ecosystems. The Sackett v. The EPA decision ruled that the Clean Water Act doesn't protect wetlands that aren't continuously connected to bigger bodies of water. The decision has been criticized for putting ecosystems, like bogs, at risk.
Rebecca Hammer is an attorney for the freshwater ecosystems team at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. She said peat bogs are particularly affected by the Sackett decision because they are mostly isolated from larger bodies of water.
鈥淭hey generally begin their life as a lake that doesn't have a drainage or connection to another water body, which allows vegetation and plant material to collect,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd the sphagnum mosses that grow there to collect over thousands of years.鈥�
About half of U.S. states have existing legal protections for wetlands, but these ecosystems in 24 states are left without any protections, legal or otherwise.
There are bogs scattered throughout the Mississippi River basin all the way down to the coast.
Hammer said the decision could have a near-permanent effect on bogs.
鈥淲hen peat bogs are destroyed or polluted, affected by development, we lose all of those benefits,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e really can't replicate peat bogs. They take thousands of years to form. So once they're gone, they're gone.鈥�
Colwell, who takes visitors on tours at the Volo Bog, says more needs to be done to protect what鈥檚 left.
鈥淲e're trying to restore these natural systems,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd when we restore them, they can increase the amount of CO2 that they will take.鈥�
This story is a product of the , an independent reporting network based at the , in partnership with , a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest.