The team taking a sediment core from Hatfield Moors NNR. Left to right: Nicki Whitehouse, Wenguang Tang, Rachel McDonald, Stuart Munro, Luca McCall. Photo credit: Alex Skarlatos-Currie.

At the start of June, the RESPECT Team conducted fieldwork in the Humberhead Levels to assess the extent and carbon storage capacity of local peatlands. With support from the Burnet Heritage Trust and local landowners, the team sampled across the historic floodplain of the River Went. Though canalised in earlier periods for land drainage, this landscape still preserves deep peat layers beneath later sediments—offering valuable insights into long-term carbon storage.

The team also collaborated with Natural England on Hatfield Moors, one of the UK’s largest lowland raised bogs and now a National Nature Reserve. Although peat extraction was halted in the mid-2000s, the site has been significantly affected by this historic activity. Ongoing conservation efforts by the team at Natural England and others aim to renew and restore its ecological value into the future.

By analysing the remaining peat deposits, the RESPECT Team hopes to better understand the role of this site, and others like it, in long-term carbon storage and inform strategies for climate resilience on the route to Net Zero.

Peat sediment captured by the corer ready to be packaged and returned to the lab for analysis. Photo credit: Alex Skarlatos-Currie 

First published: 7 July 2025

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