PEATLAND ecosystems create almost mystical environments. Spongy, water-logged peat shifts as one moves across the surface, threatening to swallow an individual moving through vegetation above the unstable ground. Surplus water from the saturated peat forms small, meandering streams that flow towards larger accumulations of water. Beyond their unique physical attributes, peatlands, as it turns out, also serve a vital ecological function. They are filled with deep accumulations of slowly decomposing plants and other organic, which over time become known as the flammable, energy-dense material known as peat. Peatlands, as a result, are huge carbon sinks, absorbing more carbon than they…