ICOS

ICOS STATION
Auchencorth Moss

The ICOS Auchencorth Moss station is one of few stations in the world measuring greenhouse gas exchange between air and peatland. Although located just 20 kilometers from Edinburgh, the station stands on a large, remote peatland stretch in the windy countryside. The peatland is dependent on inputs of nutrients via precipitation, such as rain and snow.
United Kingdom
270 m
Altitude
7.6 °C
Mean annual temperature
960.0 mm
Mean annual precipitation
Subpolar oceanic (Cfc)
Climate zone

Detailed information

UK-AMo
GB
1
2021-11-17
0
Auchencorth Moss station (ICOS code UK-AMo) is a low-lying ombrotrophic peatland situated 17 km southwest of Edinburgh (Scotland, UK). The open moorland site has an extensive uniform fetch over blanket bog to the south, west and north with a dominant wind direction from the south-west; winds from the north-east are the second most important wind direction. The terrain is relatively flat with a complex micro-topography consisting of hummocks and hollows. Hummocks are relatively small in size (typically 40 cm in diameter and 30 cm in height) and covered by either a mix of Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) Trin. and Eriophorum vaginatum L., or Juncus effusus L.. In contrast, hollows are dominated by mosses (Sphagnum papillosum Lindb. and Polytrichum commune Hedw.) and a layer of grasses. The site was drained more than 100 years ago; the drains have become progressively less effective and re-vegetated over time, leading to slow and progressive rewetting of the site. Over the last 20 years, the site has been used for seasonal low intensity sheep grazing; areas of peat extraction occur at the margins of the catchment outside the footprint of the flux tower measurements. Parent material comprises Upper Carboniferous/Lower Devonian sedimentary rocks overlain by fluvio-glacial till; peat depth ranges from < 0.5 to > 5 m. Long-term research on C fluxes is focussed on the 3.4 km2 upper part of the catchment (elevation range 249-300 m) where the soils comprise peats (85%), Gleysols (9%), Humic Gleysols (3%) and Cambisols (3%).
7.6 °C
960.0 mm
89.79 W/m2
55.792545, -3.2436917
270 m

Acknowledgements

Funder Award number Award Start date End date Comment
Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) National capability (NC) funding UK-SCAPE 2018-04-01 2023-03-01 Funding award extended

Current staff

Name Role (ICOS vocabulary) Start date
James Cash Data Manager 2024-05-03
Mhairi Coyle Researcher 2018-08-28
William Fincham Data Manager 2022-12-13
Maude Grenier Researcher 2022-05-01
Duncan Harvey Engineer 2018-08-28
Carole Helfter Researcher 2021-01-16
Matthew Jones Engineer 2018-08-28
Sarah Leeson Engineer 2018-08-28
Peter Levy Researcher 2018-08-28
Neil Mullinger Engineer 2019-08-23
Eiko Nemitz Principal Investigator 2018-08-28
Felicity Ocallaghan Engineer 2023-11-01
Eilidh Vandome Engineer 2024-04-02
Karen Yeung Administrator 2021-01-16

Former staff

Name Role (ICOS vocabulary) Start date End date
Carole Helfter Administrator 2018-08-28 2021-01-15
Netty van Dijk Engineer 2018-08-28 2023-09-14
Karen Yeung Engineer 2018-08-28 2021-01-15