land use

Humans use land for buildings for e.g houses , factories, shops and airports.

Humans also use land for a farms and for quarries. As well as for dumping waste for .g landfills

All of this means that there is less land available for animals and plants. Due to the reduction is habitats this reduces biodiversity.

There is one area where this is a particular problem and that is with pest.

Pest bigs and pest lands contain large amounts of dead plant materials.

Conditions in the peat mean that decay is very slow.

So peat bogs and peat lands contain a large amount of trapped carbon.

However these habitats are being destroyed.

Peat is used to produce cheap compost for gardens and farms.

In some countries , peat is burned to release energy for example to generate electricity.

The destruction of peat bogs and peat lands is reducing the area of this habitat that is reducing the variety of animals, plants and microorganisms that live here. So this reduces biodiversity.

Another big problem with peat is once peat has been extracted and used for compost, it begins to decay this releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A lot of peat is burned this releases carbon dioxide, the carbon dioxide released contributes to climate change.

Many gardeners have stopped buying compost made with peat however the alternatives are expensive — and if farmers had to use peat free compost then that could increase the price of food.