What is "peat"

Peat \Peat\, n. [Cf. Pet a fondling.] A small person; a pet; -- sometimes used contemptuously. [Obs.]
--Shak.

Peat \Peat\, n. [Prob. for beat, prop., material used to make the fire burn better, fr. AS. b?tan to better, mend (a fire), b?t advantage. See Better, Boot advantage.] A substance of vegetable origin, consisting of roots and fibers, moss, etc., in various stages of decomposition, and found, as a kind of turf or bog, usually in low situations, where it is always more or less saturated with water. It is often dried and used for fuel. Peat bog, a bog containing peat; also, peat as it occurs in such places; peat moss. Peat moss.

1. The plants which, when decomposed, become peat.

2. A fen producing peat.

3. (Bot.) Moss of the genus Sphagnum, which often grows abundantly in boggy or peaty places.

   Peat reek, the reek or smoke of peat; hence, also, the peculiar flavor given to whisky by being distilled with peat as fuel. [Scot.]

c.1200, in Scottish Latin, of unknown origin, probably from a Celtic root *pett- (cognates: Cornish peyth, Welsh peth "quantity, part, thing," Old Irish pet, Breton pez "piece"). The earliest sense is not of the turf but of the cut piece of it, and the Celtic root may be connected to that of piece.

Etymology 1 n. Soil formed of dead but not fully decay plants found in bog areas. (from 14th c.) Etymology 2

n. (context obsolete English) A pet, a darling; a woman.

n. partially carbonized vegetable matter saturated with water; can be used as a fuel when dried

Peat is an accumulation of decayed vegetation matter.

Peat may also refer to:

• Peat (name), people with the surname Peat
• Peat Island, New South Wales, Australia
• Peat Marwick, accounting firm, predecessor of KPMG

Peat (turf) is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter that is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, or mires. The peatland ecosystem is the most efficient carbon sink on the planet because peatland plants capture the CO which is naturally released from the peat, thus maintaining an equilibrium. In natural peatlands, the "annual rate of biomass production is greater than the rate of decomposition", but it takes "thousands of years for peatlands to develop the deposits of 1.5 to 2.3 m, which is the average depth of the boreal peatlands". One of the most common components is Sphagnum moss, although many other plants can contribute. Soils that contain mostly peat are known as histosols. Peat forms in wetland conditions, where flooding obstructs flows of oxygen from the atmosphere, slowing rates of decomposition.

Peatlands, also known as mires, particularly bogs, are the most important source of peat, but other less common wetland types also deposit peat, including fens, pocosins, and peat swamp forests. Other words for lands dominated by peat include moors or muskegs. Landscapes covered in peat also have specific kinds of plants, particularly Sphagnum moss, ericaceous shrubs, and sedges (see bog for more information on this aspect of peat). Since organic matter accumulates over thousands of years, peat deposits also provide records of past vegetation and climates stored in plant remains, particularly pollen. Hence, they allow humans to reconstruct past environments and changes in human land use.

Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world. By volume, about 4 trillion m³ of peat are in the world, covering a total of around 2% of global land area (about 3 million km²), containing about 8 billion terajoules of energy. Over time, the formation of peat is often the first step in the geological formation of other fossil fuels such as coal, particularly low-grade coal such as lignite.

Depending on the agency, peat is not generally regarded as a renewable source of energy, as its extraction rate in industrialized countries far exceeds its slow regrowth rate of 1 mm per year, and as peat regrowth is also reported to take place in only 30-40% of peatlands. Because of this, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and another organization affiliated with the United Nations classifies peat as a fossil fuel. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has begun to classify peat as a "slow-renewable" fuel. This is also the classification used by many in the peat industry.

At 106 g CO/ MJ, the carbon dioxide emission intensity of peat is higher than that of coal (at 94.6 g CO/MJ) and natural gas (at 56.1).

Peat fires have been responsible for some large public health disasters, including the 1997 Southeast Asian haze.

Peat is an English patronymic surname.

People with the name Peat include:

• Andrus Peat (born 1993), American football player
• Charles Urie Peat (28 February 1892 – 27 October 1979), British politician and cricketer
• F. David Peat (born April 18, 1938), British physicist and author
• Harold R. Peat (July 12, 1893 – 1960), Canadian soldier and author
• Jeremy Peat (born March 1945), British economist
• Louisa Watson Small Peat (1883–1952), Irish lecturer and writer
• Marion Todd Peat (born May 20, 1964), former American football player
• Mark Peat (born 1982), Scottish footpall player
• Michael Peat (born 16 November 1949), British accountant and former private secretary to Charles, Prince of Wales
• Nathan Neil Martin Peat (born 19 September 1982), English footballer
• Neville Peat, New Zealand author and photographer
• Stephen Peat (born March 10, 1980), Canadian ice hockey player
• Steve Peat (born 1974), English mountain biker
• William Barclay Peat (15 February 1852 – 24 January 1936), British accountant