Mire
A
mire or
quagmire, sometimes called a
peatland in North America, is a wetland terrain without forest cover dominated by living, peat-forming plants. For botanists and ecologists, the term
peatland is a more universal term for any terrain dominated by peat to a depth of 30–40 cm, even if it has been completely drained. There are two types of mire – fens and bogs. A bog is situated on a domed-shaped land form, is higher than the surrounding landscape, and obtains most of its water from rainfall while a fen is located on a slope, flat, or depression and gets its water from both rainfall
and surface water. Also, while a bog is always acidic and nutrient-poor, a fen may be either acidic or alkaline and either nutrient-poor or nutrient-rich. A mire is distinguished from a swamp by its lack of a forest canopy, and from a marsh by its water nutrients and distribution as well as its plant life.:p.13 Because mires rely on rainwater for moisture, they are usually deficient in both oxygen and phosphorus, though they may vary widely with regard to nitrogen.:p.14 These things mean that mires are a kind of "...living relic...