Swamplands: Tundra Beavers, Quaking Bogs, and the Improbable World of Peat

In a series of 13 essays, Struzik (Inst. for Energy and Environmental Policy, Queen’s Univ., Kingston, Ont.; Firestorm: How Wildfire Will Shape Our Future; Future Arctic: Field Notes from a World on the Edge) takes readers on a global tour of peatlands, bogs, fens, swamps and marshes. One might think of these underappreciated ecosystems as dark, dank, dismal environs filled with biting creatures, but Struzik’s informative book reveals that swamplands (peatlands is an interchangeable term) teem with a variety of wildlife and plants and have had a vital role in human histories. Swamplands cover approximately four percent of the planet and store twice as much carbon as the Earth’s forests, but they are being destroyed at an alarming rate, Struzik writes. He points out swampy ecosystems in India, the United States (including Hawai’i, Louisiana, and Texas), and Canada and explains why each of them is so essential. The essays make connections between history and science, in Struzik’s personalizing writing style that might motivate readers to save the swamps. The book includes photographs.