Peat-Hub-Ireland Database Version 1.0

The Peat Hub Ireland Database of Research on Irish Peatlands is a freely accessible resource that makes research data on Irish peatlands available to researchers and other stakeholders. The database provides a searchable, updatable, and comprehensive collection of research findings, covering studies from January 2000 to October 2023. This database supported a review that used a comprehensive evidence synthesis approach, combining expert and stakeholder input with peer-reviewed studies and grey literature. The goal of the review was to collate evidence to encourage researchers, civic societies, and policymakers to adopt an unbiased, evidence-based approach toward the future sustainable management and improved planning of Irish peatlands.

The PHI database aims to raise awareness amongst researchers and the wider stakeholder community engaging in peatlands research in Ireland and further afield. Alongside the ‘living’ glossary of peatland terminology, the database will also help researchers gain a greater understanding of work from other disciplines to overcome academic silos and facilitate incorporation of insights from a range of disciplines. It will also help researchers avoid duplication of effort, raise awareness of previous research and established methodologies, build upon existing data to identify research gaps and new projects, and encourage collaborative work within the peatland scientific community.

The database contains a total of 900 records organised into the following thematic areas: Biodiversity, Soil, Climate Change, Water, Archaeology and Palaeo-environment, Technology and Mapping, Society and Culture, Management, Growing Media/Substrate, Policy and Law. Each record in the database is given a unique ID number and is searchable by Author, Publication year, Theme, Sub-Topic, Title, DOI/URL and the Source of Citation. See Metatdata for details. 

You can find the replicable Methodology and other outputs of the Peat Hub Ireland project on the website; www.ucd.ie/peat-hub-ireland and in the EPA final report : https://www.epa.ie/publications/

Recommended citation: 

Renou-Wilson, F., D. Wilson, and K. Flood. 2024. Peat-Hub-Ireland Database Version 1.0. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.13911873